He Who Promised is Faithful

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:19-25 ESV)

Jesus Christ is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He was in the beginning with God, he is God, and all that was made (created) was created (made) by him. And God the Father sent him to the earth one day, as was promised for a long time, and he was born as a human baby to a human mother, but he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so he was without sin. So when he lived on the earth 2000 years ago, he was fully God and fully human (God incarnate), and he never sinned.

Now God sent his Son Jesus Christ to the earth for a very specific purpose. While he lived on the earth he healed the sick and afflicted, raised the dead, delivered people from demons, performed many miracles, fed the hungry miraculously, comforted the sorrowful, and he preached repentance and obedience to him for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God. And then he was put to death on a cross by those who hated him, because he lived the truth and he told them the truth that many did not want to hear.

But that was the ultimate purpose in God sending Jesus Christ to the earth, which was that he might be our sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world. For when he died, our sins died with him, and when he rose from the dead, he was raised in victory over sin, death, hell, and Satan (the devil). And this is so that, by genuine faith in him, we will die to sin and now live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living. For he died to deliver us from our addiction to sin so we’d serve him.

[Isaiah 53:1-12; Matt 7:21-23; Matt 26:26-29; Lu 9:23-26; Lu 17:25; Jn 1:1-36; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 8:24,58; Jn 10:27-33; Jn 20:28-29; Rom 5:8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 9:5; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 11:23-32; 1 Co 15:1-8; 2 Co 5:15,21; Eph 4:17-24; Php 2:5-11; Col 2:9; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 1:8-9; Heb 2:14-15; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:24; 2 Pet 1:1; 1 John 3:4-10]  

Therefore, because of who Jesus is, and because of what he did for us in dying for our sins and in being raised from the dead, victorious over sin, hell, death, and Satan, if we are those of genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Christ, we are to draw near to our Lord with true hearts and in full assurance of faith. No fakery allowed. No false professions of faith in Jesus Christ while we go on living in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord and while we do not obey his commandments, in daily practice.

For the faith that saves originates with God, it comes from God, it is persuaded of God, and it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of humans. And so this faith aligns with God’s will and purpose for our lives. And Jesus died on that cross so that we will die with him to sin and live to his righteousness. And he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our slavery to sin so that we will now serve and honor him with our lives in obedience to him.

So, when God persuades us (which is the meaning of faith), he persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die with him to sin and to now walk in obedience to his commands, in his power and strength, by the grace of God, in daily practice. For by faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God in walks of obedience to his commands.

Thus, when we hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, this is not a false hope of salvation from sin and of eternal life with God based on a profession of faith in Jesus Christ alone. This is based on us denying self, dying daily to sin, and walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, as our faith in Christ is being lived out in our daily lives. For, according to the Scriptures, faith is obedience, and disobedience is unbelief. And if we live in deliberate sin, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

So, it is important for us who profess faith in Jesus Christ to get together with one another daily (regularly) to encourage, exhort, urge, counsel, teach, instruct, and speak the truth in love to one another so that none of us are led astray by false gospels of men in their cunning and craftiness, and so none of us are led astray by the deceitfulness of sin, and so we encourage one another to serve the Lord in ministry in doing the works that God prepared in advance that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

Zeal for Your House

An Original Work / August 1, 2016

Based off Jn. 2:17; Ps. 69:9

Zeal for Your house, it consumes me.

Lord, I love my times with You.

I love to worship You and sing Your praises.

Time in Your Word brings me closer to You,

List’ning to You speaking to me,

Gently guiding me in truth.

Lord, You are my life’s example,

Showing me how I should live.

I love to walk with You where’er You lead me.

No greater joy have I when serving You. 

Loving, giving, resting in Your strength, 

I’m yielding to Your will. 

Zeal for Your house, it consumes me.

See the church turned upside down:

Marketing ventures taking place of worship,

Men of the gospel turning into clowns.

Gospel message made appealing,

So the world will feel at home.

Lord, we need a great revival.

Turn their hearts, Lord, back to You.

Open the blind eyes, turn them all from darkness,

Lord, to the light. May they return to You, 

Turn from their sin, forsake idols,

Be restored to God again.

https://vimeo.com/177433676