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HEBREWS CHAPTER 10 KJV WEB See previous page Heb 10,1-18 (141d) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> It bears witness to Jesus >> Prophesy about Jesus’ ministry >> Jesus as the savior – When it speaks of the law, it’s talking about the Law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments along with the sundry laws and the laws of temple worship, essentially all behavior pertaining the Israel contained in the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch. Through the Law of Moses we learn about temple worship, the knowledge that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai after Israel's exile from Egypt. The writer of Hebrews says that those sacrifices of temple worship were never meant to take away sin, but were merely used as a reminder of sin year by year, otherwise they would “have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin.” That word “once” appears many times throughout this chapter and is highly significant. Heb 10,1-13 (60d) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Jesus humbled Himself in obedience to the point of death / Church dies to self, receives an anointing and defeats her enemies – God receives our obedience through the obedience of His Son, seeking the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. “By this will” he says in verse 10, speaks to verse 7, and “Behold, I have come… to do thy will,” speaks to the obedience of Christ. This is not just about the obedience of the cross, but also His obedience throughout His sinless life in perfect submission to the Father. By our faith in His offering that He made once for all, the Father has ordained that His righteousness should be imparted to us through Jesus’ crucified body, making us perfect and acceptable to Him. In this way Christ has made us His children, but we cannot have grace without sanctification any more than we can have salvation without obedience, for salvation pertains both to this life and the life to come. Heb 10,1-7 (43g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Perfect (mature) >> Flawless -- This verse goes with verse 14. God has taken away the old covenant sacrifices and offerings and replaced them with obedience. Following this context, “to do thy will” primarily refers to Christ living a sinless life in a body that craved sin to become the perfect Lamb of God, who would be slaughtered for the sins of all mankind. The secondary context refers to our own obedience. As His born-again children, God calls us to obedience even as He has called His Son to obedience, though we are frail with a penchant for evil. Jesus’ obedience was that of perfection, whereas our obedience is defined in terms of freedom from addiction (Romans chapters 6 &7). From our understanding of Scripture, total freedom from sin is unattainable in this life, yet we know that Paul and the writer of Hebrews were working around our fallibilities. The Father sent Jesus to make eternal life available to us and deliver us from the practice of sin, giving us an alternative to slavery through the power of the Holy Spirit. Try as we may to stop sinning, regrettably, we will continue to sin throughout our lives. What God wants from us more than anything is to overcome our various bondages to sin, whether it be drugs, alcohol, anger, sexual perversion, bitterness, etc. God wants us to seek Him for the freedom to serve Him in a state of self-control. He doesn’t want sin to be our master, dictating how we live. See also: Freedom of Christ; Eph 5,3-7; 92l Heb 10,1-5 (174a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s religion >> Good traditions (Exception to bad religion) >> Good customs -- These verses go with verse 11 Heb 10,1-4 (173g) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Unholy sacrifice (Penance) >> Offering sacrifice without God’s approval >> Sacrifice against the will of God -- These verses go with verses 26-29. Heb 10,1-3 (154j) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> Having a good conscience >> God is my conscience -- These verses go with verse 22 (172j) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Jesus never to die again >> Because His death was sufficient -- This verse goes with verse 18 Heb 10-1 (234b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Seeking the glory of His favor -- This verse goes with verses 21,22 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10-2 (103e) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> cleansing of baptism -- This verse goes with verse 22 (108j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of Jesus Christ >> Revelation of His righteousness -- This verse goes with verses 10-13 Heb 10-3 (238i) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Teachers >> Teachers "remind" their students >> Prevention against forgetting – Jesus commanded us to celebrate communion whenever we come together in remembrance of Him, indicating that communion has no spiritual function at all, just like temple worship was a reminder of sin year by year to the Israelites. Jesus said, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom” (Mat 26-29). This is the great hope that communion represents; we are to take communion in remembrance of His death, but we are also to take it in hope of the resurrection, in hope of sitting in our Father’s kingdom with Christ in assembly with all His people, celebrating at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Heb 10,4-18 (30h) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> God favors you by His grace >> He favors you through His son – The writer of Hebrews is contrasting the Law against the Spirit (Galatians chapter 5). The Law was very meaningful to the Israelites, but as time passed it had grown old and was “ready to disappear” (Heb 8-13). The Old Testament taught that if people would not abide by the law, they should be stoned to death; that is how important the Law was to them, important as the Spirit is to us. God has since established a new covenant, and commanded us to walk according to God’s grace instead of the Law. Paul in Galatians stressed that we should walk in the Spirit to please Him, promising that it would change our lives according to His will. The writer of Hebrews was specifying the inherent difference between the old and new covenants, saying that those who sought to please God according to the law worshipped Him in “whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin” through the blood of bulls of goats (v10); yet, he said that none of those offerings could take away sin. That is, the Israelites for centuries practiced the laws of temple worship without ever affecting their salvation. Temple worship was not against the will of God, yet neither did it please Him; it only proved that if they lived in the days of the new covenant they would have obeyed Christ, and that was pleasing to God. Heb 10,4-13 (37d) Judgment >> Judgment of God on His Son >> Jesus’ humanity >> He was a man Heb 10,4-10 (247g) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> God’s interests >> God is interested in the cross – The old covenant law was static, whereas being led by the Spirit is dynamic, and so is the fulfillment of prophecy; and since the new covenant was inaugurated through the fulfillment of prophecy, it makes the new covenant inherently dynamic. Moreover, the new covenant had its beginnings from Christ, so He continues in His children. Our relationship with God is dynamic in the sense that the Holy Spirit can speak to us and give us specific direction that the Old Testament could not do. We read the Old Testament to discover what was the will of God in days of old, but we read the New Testament to discover His will today, and we obey the Holy Spirit as a means of accomplishing the works that He prepared for us. Contained in the Old Testament was the Law that demanded obedience, whereas the New Testament contains the promise of the Spirit, who leads us to do His will. Heb 10-4 (64g) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Limits of God >> God cannot forgive through the blood of bulls and goats – The writings of the Old Testament consisted of commandments that the Israelites were required to follow, not to please God but to avoid His judgment. That is, it was impossible to please Him through the old covenant; those sacrifices only symbolized what was to come. We know that when Jesus came and fulfilled the old covenant prophecies and gave His life’s blood for the sins of the world, He became the very substance of old covenant worship. What we find then is the difference between the Law required by Israel versus a man who fulfilled prophecy, the living word of God (Jn 1-14). Heb 10,5-9 (136e) Temple >> Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of Christ >> Jesus’ fleshly body >> The flesh of Jesus’ sacrifice – The statement, “But a body thou hast prepared for Me,” refers to the body of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had no beginning and will have no end, eternal, yet born of the Virgin Mary. Eternity is an impossible concept to grasp, especially past eternity, because we had a beginning. For this reason we will never understand God’s past, but we will follow in His eternal future. This means God has already lived an eternity before He made man, so what was He doing all that time? No one knows! There are probably creatures in heaven that have lived nearly forever that will help explain what God has been doing, but there was a time before God created them too, when He was alone, not even space existed. That time was also an eternity. Even a sliver of eternity is eternal in itself. This makes God a very mysterious person indeed. Eternity past would seem like hell to us, but God was okay with it. Even hell is okay with God, but without God heaven itself would be a hollowed out shell of a paradise. It says that a body was prepared for Him, because Jesus cannot exist in two places at the same time, unlike the Holy Spirit who is always everywhere, when God deposited His seed in the Virgin Mary, the Son of God suddenly ceased to reside in heaven and was placed inside her womb. Nine months later the person of Jesus Christ was born, the physical embodiment of the Holy Spirit, the very person who existed without beginning, only now having the physical attributes of His mother, grew to become a man who would die for the sins of the world. See also: Eternity past; Heb 11-1; 90b Heb 10,5-7 (219i) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> Predestination >> Predestined according to the word of God Heb 10-5 (8l) Responsibility >> Responsible to defend God’s cause >> Preparing the sacrifice KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,7-10 (87c) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Jesus obeyed all the Father’s will – The ministry of the Holy Spirit is not in reference to sin, but is a ministry of righteousness that leads to a trail of good works that God prepared for us from all eternity. Being a host to the Holy Spirit is what forgives us through the cross, and doing His will us leads into communion with Him. Heb 9-28 says, “Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” This is speaking about the second coming of Christ; once He subjects His enemies to His will, He will come again, and His foot will touch the Mount of Olives, and it will mark the beginning of Millennium, the beginning of His kingdom that will have no end. It will be physically manifested in His creation, and it will come through the obedience of His beloved children. Heb 10-7 (14a) Servant >> Servants of God’s word Heb 10-8,9 (58g) Paradox >> Opposites >> Old covenant versus the new covenant -- These verses go with verses 28&29. The ultimate difference between the new and old covenants is that instead of God using us to kill His enemies, as He did with Israel against the inhabitants of Canaan, he uses us to save them through the gospel. The hope is that the gospel will change their lives and thus rid the land of sin instead of ridding the sinner. Therefore, if people are no longer getting saved, and if people's lives are not changing, and if sin continues to pollute the land, then the gospel isn't working. This indicates that God will soon return to His old covenant way of ridding the earth of sinners in the fulfillment of endtime prophecy. (139i) Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >> Tear down the old to rebuild the new – If the Jewish sacrifices could never take away sins (v11), then why did God command Israel to perform them? It appears that He forgave Israel through their busywork, but in fact he forgave them looking forward to the sacrifice that Jesus would make with His own flesh. He ordered Israel to perform their many rituals throughout the generations as a reminder of what was to come, and when Jesus came, the very people who performed the sacrifices ordered His sacrifice. Temple worship was so ingrained in the people that it became part of their lives, and it was taught to the children who never knew anything else. There were pagan altars and rituals, but they sacrificed based on human prerogative, whereas Israel sacrificed based on obedience to specific instructions given through Moses. God held Israel to these exact methods of temple worship that were written to distinguish them from the nations. Had they changed the customs by their own authority, temple worship would have no longer been based on obedience, and they would have become unacceptable, as it is written, "See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain" (Exodus 25-40). Jesus obtained His place at the right-hand of power through obedience, and it would behoove us to obey the Holy Spirit that we may be children of our Father who is in heaven (Mat 5-45). See also: Obedience; law versus the Spirit; Mat 10-40; 153a (190f) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Circumcision >> Undressing >> Dismantling the outer tabernacle -- These verses go with verse 35 (205h) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> New covenant >> The old one is obsolete (216j) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> You cannot control God’s desire for you >> man is not in control of his own destiny (248k) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Values >> The Highest Values >> Some things take precedence over others Heb 10-9 (98c) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Rooted deeply >> The lord establishes us KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,10-18 (172i) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Jesus never to die again >> Because He conquered sin and death – Jesus made one sacrifice for sins for all time, so what are the Catholic priests thinking, who claim that the bread and the wine are magically transformed into the body and blood of Christ to be re-sacrificed over and over during communion (Eucharist)? Haven’t they read the book of Hebrews that says in verse 14, with “one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified”? Ever since this one sacrifice has been made, which has cleansed the people from their sins, there is no longer need for another. This invalidates the concept of transubstantiation according to verse 18, “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Based on these two verses (14&18), Catholics should stop teaching that the wine and the bread literally turn into the body and blood of Christ at the blessing of the priest. The Catholics are not greater than the Scriptures, are they? The fact that they call themselves priests has an Old Testament ring to it, demonstrating a will to an old covenant style of worship. It is as though they don’t fully acknowledge the new covenant, yet they call themselves the "True Church". The function of a priest is to intercede for the people, but this has been accomplished in Christ, who is now our mediator, eliminating any need for another priest (1Tim 2-5). The very existence of the Catholic Priesthood is blasphemous to Jesus' office as the Great High Priest, communicating that the blood of Christ is insufficient to fully cleanse our sin, as though He needed help from another priest. This is the ultimate insult to the Spirit of grace. The only priest we need is seated at the right hand of the Father, who personally intercedes for us through the Holy Spirit, who is waiting for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet. This suggests that His Father is responsible for accomplishing this, and also suggests that the Catholic Priesthood is at the top of the list of His enemies. Hebrews chapter ten is prophetically dedicated to the Catholic heresy of transubstantiation, God knowing that depraved pagans would attempt to hijack the gospel, inventing their own doctrines to pervert the grace of God, who has a special place in hell prepared for those who would perpetuate these lies, and who deter people from believing in the one true sacrifice of Jesus body on the cross to end all sacrifices and offerings for sin. See also: Catholicism; Heb 10-12,13; 48m Heb 10,10-14 80l The Priesthood (Key verse) Heb 10,10-13 (108j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of Jesus Christ >> Revelation of His righteousness -- These verses go with verses 19-23 (136g) Temple >> Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of Christ >> Jesus’ spiritual body Heb 10,10-12 (209j) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our sacrifice >> Jesus paid the price for us >> Jesus is the lamb of God >> The Great High Priest offered up Himself Heb 10-10 (189i) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Martyr >> Jesus was a martyr – “Sanctified” means separated from the world, set apart for God’s purpose. The process of sanctification is through the cross, dying to self. As the phrase suggests, to be set apart from the world is painful. Death is the reason Jesus came and died for us, so we would not have to die, as He said in Jn 11-26, “Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” The way God views death is different from the way we see it. Death to us is a corpse laying in a casket, lowered into the ground and covered with dirt, but in God's mind only their bodies die; people themselves did not die, for their spirit lives on. Therefore, God sees death as spiritual, not that our spirit dies but that we are separated from God. Hell is ultimate separation from God, hence God's poignant definition of death. In heaven we will live with the Lord. This is the ultimate form of separation from our sinful flesh, to literally die, but God wants what He has done for us to take effect today; He want us to give all our worldly desires to Him, and take on His purpose as we will in heaven. (191g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Set apart >> God sanctifies us by His doing -- This verse goes with verse 14 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10-11 (174a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s religion >> Good traditions (Exception to bad religion) >> Good customs -- This verse goes with verses 1-5 Heb 10,12-14 (214g) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> Dispensation of God’s revelations >> Dispensation of the last days Heb 10-12,13 (38d) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death (Satan) >> Resurrection brings about judgment (48m) Judgment >> Jesus’ enemies are destroyed >> Enemies of His grace – One sacrifice has been made for all time, though Catholics believe the holy Eucharist literally transforms into the body and blood of Christ from week to week in their communion, and in that sense they continually offer the body and blood of Christ, just like the high priest continually offered the blood of bulls and calves from year to year, which the Bible says can never take away sin (v11). Hence, this passage says that Jesus is seated at the right-hand of God, until He makes His enemies a footstool for His feet. Notice that there is no involvement on Jesus part in subduing His enemies, but His Father does this for Him, in that God made the creation to disarm and coral His enemies by their own wickedness. The Catholic priests have repeatedly sacrificed the flesh and blood of Christ in their own minds, being a type of blasphemy, and for that reason their religious establishment has exposed itself as conceived by a reprobate mind. Note what it says in verse 18, “Where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.” If the Catholics feel they must continually offer the body and blood of Christ in communion, it suggests they lack faith in His one-time offering on the cross to cleanse them from their sin. See also: Catholicism; Heb 10,26-29; 173g (56e) Paradox >> Opposites >> Humble yourself as a defensive strategy (67b) Authority >> Jesus at the right hand of the father >> He is above all other authorities Heb 10-12 (41c) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus presented Himself to God without sin for us – Jesus was completely innocent of all evil. Any sacrifice that is offered invokes one of two responses, either acceptance or rejection. Since the Father ordered the sacrifice of His Son, it guaranteed acceptance, but Jesus offered Himself to the Father just the same. Based on the Father’s critique of Jesus’ life in the flesh, He looked for any flaw or sin that He might have committed and found none, so the Father received His Son back into His presence, proving that Jesus was without sin. His life from beginning to end was flawless, that is what made Jesus’ sacrifice acceptable to the Father as a means of forgiving us. Heb 10-14 (43g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Perfect (mature) >> Flawless -- This verse goes with verse 1 (191g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Set apart >> God sanctifies us by His doing -- This verse goes with verse 10 Heb 10,15-17 (109h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit the teacher >> Spirit teaches us about the word of God >> Spirit teaches us about Jesus – This Old Testament verse refers to prophecy of the new covenant Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer, which in turn refers to the heavenly ministry of Christ as the Great High Priest, whose title—Word of God—intercedes for the people and delegates the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him for eternal life. The Holy Spirit brings with Him this seal: “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them have this promise. Heb 10-15,16 (155g) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Holy Spirit bears witness of the believer – The Holy Spirit writes God’s laws on our heart, as though inscribing them in stone, not that our hearts are stone but that His writing is permanent. That is, the Holy Spirit has become our conscience. Man with or without God has a conscience, but those who believe in Jesus have a conscience that has been as it were supercharged and directed by the indwelling Holy Spirit. God writes His laws on our heart so we know intrinsically what is evil, and He teaches us about His will, being an advantage that the old covenant did not have. The law cannot govern our thoughts, but the new covenant does (Mat 5-27,28). The world has a conscience based on their own prerogative, which varies from person to person, but the disciple of Jesus has a conscience that is managed by God Himself. The committed Christian refuses to touch his conscience to direct it in any way but allows the Holy Spirit to manage His conscience for him, directing him into the will of God. Adam and Eve (man is free); Mat 8,23-27; 147c Heb 10-18 (120g) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Forgiveness >> Forgiveness is an act of mercy >> We have forgiveness through the blood of Christ (172j) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Jesus never to die again >> Because His death was sufficient -- This verse goes with verse 2. The opposite verse is Rom 5-13, “Sin is not imputed when there is no law.” The Law came through Moses and increased the offense of sin. Then later Jesus came and died for the sins of the world, so now it says, “Where there is forgiveness… there is no longer any offering for sin.” God cannot impute sin without law, and He needs no further offering once sin is forgiven. What then can we say about the Catholics who take the Eucharist every week, thinking the bread and wine literally transubstantiate into the body and blood of Christ? In their minds He is offered over and over. It must mean, then, that they are not forgiven, because it says ‘where there is forgiveness there is no longer need for an offering.’ If they actually believed in Jesus, their sins would be forgiven, so they would not need the bread and wine to transform into the body and blood of Christ. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,19-26 (229j) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Partaking >> Partaking of Jesus >> Partaking of Jesus’ gift – Jesus is not celebrating in heaven, not while His Church is suffering in the flesh. He is seated at the right-hand of the Father interceding for the saints as our Great High Priest, making request on our behalf. He said, “I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God” (Lk 22-16), referring to Passover, which represents the age of grace where God passes over our sins in order that we may be forgiven, as though we had never sinned. Jesus would never eat Passover again so long as His people are suffering in the flesh, and their suffering will not end until the last day of their tribulation, until the last day of this age, until the First Resurrection, when He gathers His people together after 2000 years. This is when Jesus celebrates with His people at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Meanwhile, the earth suffers the bowls of God’s fierce wrath against the ungodly. He Raptures His people because the world is making martyrs of them in a campaign to rid Christianity from the earth spearheaded by the antichrist. The bowls of God’s wrath are so severe that there is no place on earth where they would be safe from His plagues, so He whisked them into heaven where they celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and God the Father will marry the Church to His Son, Jesus Christ, and they will celebrate with bread and wine along with a great feast. See also: Marriage Supper of the Lamb; 2Pet 3-8,9; 215e Heb 10,19-25 (96e) Thy kingdom come >> Attitude >> Positive attitude toward God >> Good attitude toward Jesus (97d) Thy kingdom come >> Attention >> Facing in the direction of the Lord >> Focusing your attention on God (100e) Thy kingdom come >> Diligence >> Diligence in the sight of God (101g) Thy kingdom come >> Zeal >> Zeal comes from a grateful heart Heb 10,19-23 (108j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of Jesus Christ >> Revelation of His righteousness -- These verses go with verse 2. We have the revelation of Jesus Christ dwelling in us, and the word of God that lives in us is new every day, not like stale bread, but words made freshly true every day by the Holy Spirit. We have access into the Most Holy Place because we belong to Him; we are His children, not because we said the Sinner's Prayer, but because we have been born-again and have dedicated our heart forever to His service. For the rest of eternity we no longer live for ourselves but for His purpose and glory. We are His property now, and for this reason He has given us authority and a right to enter the Most Holy Place into His presence, where He reveals Himself to us through the word of God and prayer. He tells His children to enter with confidence, but to the rest of humanity His command is to be born-again or be lost forever. No man can steal his way into heaven; there is no map he can use to find the Holy of Holies, for it is a spiritual place that opens to him only through obedience of faith. (121i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope Based On Faithfulness >> Hope based on perseverance (194a) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Run to God >> Run the race that is set before us KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,19-22 (37g) Judgment >> Redemption of man >> His blood is the gift of His grace (71l) Authority >> Ordained by God >> We are ordained through obedience – This world is full of masochists who mistreat their bodies for religious purposes, seeking favor from god. There are some cultures that advocate whipping their bodies bloody; the one who draws the most blood wins favor with the people, and assumes they have won favor with their god, but the God of heaven is not impressed with self-imposed public floggings or any religiously motivated acts of so-called righteousness; instead, He is impressed with obeying the Holy Spirit, that is, obtaining the hearing ear and doing what He says. The nations sacrificed to other gods long before God instituted temple worship through Moses, yet Israel’s form of worship was the only one that God accepted, simply because He prescribed the exact manner how they should worship Him. The more they lived by His commandments, the more God was pleased with them, so finding favor with God is based on obedience rather than on personal inclination. God is pleased with the sacrifice of our sinful nature, because it is according to His commandment. (132c) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father through Christ – In ancient times gentiles were not allowed behind the curtain made of porpoise skin, called the outer court, and much less did they have access into the temple. Proceeding farther, not just any Jew was welcome in the temple’s holy place, and only the high priest was welcome in the Most Holy Place just once a year at Passover, when they made the annual sacrifice for sin. Now that Jesus has been sacrificed, everybody who believes in Him for the forgiveness of sin has access to the Most Holy Place, both Jew and gentile. This is what Jesus has done for us: He “broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” (Eph 2-14) that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Since Jesus shed his blood, His influence is great on those who visit Him through the word of God and prayer and have access into the Most Holy Place through His Spirit who dwells in us. (133g) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> The body of Christ is holy >> We have made ourselves holy through Christ – The priests before they performed the sacrifice washed their bodies with pure water, representing the Holy Spirit (Eph 5-26), and then they put on the priestly garb. There are preliminary activities before the ceremony for us too: we read the Bible to our body, commanding it to obey the Lord, like lathering with soap, and then rinsing off the impurities with the water of anointing. We subject our bodies to the ministry of dying to self, which becomes our spiritual sacrifice. Jesus said in Mat 16-24, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, which cleanses all other sacrifices, for without His sacrifice our sacrifices would be unacceptable. We are to enter with confidence into the Most Holy Place through the blood of Jesus to present our offering, indicating that we too have become priests. It is not through the blood of bulls and goats that we enter the temple, but by a new and living way that Jesus inaugurated with His own blood. We follow Him into a temple not made with hands, into the Holy of Holies, and one day we will enter heaven in a literal sense. (140a) Temple >> Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >> The doorway (205f) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> New covenant >> The new covenant in His blood – Dying to self, we make the sacrifice of our sinful passions and desires that we take with us into the temple as our offering to Him. We take it into the Most Holy Place and sprinkle the articles of worship with it. When Jesus performed the ultimate sacrifice of Himself and sprinkled the articles of worship with His own blood, we were the ones being sprinkled; we are the temple, and God has placed the stone tablets of the law into the Ark of the Covenant, into our innermost being. Heb 8-10 says, “I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” When we enter this Most Holy Place, we see Jesus who has gone before us sprinkling His blood on us in a new and living way, and we exit the temple a new and living person. We should not leave church the same person but changed in some way, little by little, week by week, year by year. When we are renewed, we become someone new, having been washed with the Holy Spirit and our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience by the blood of Jesus. Our pastor must have personal experience with this Most Holy Place, otherwise how can he lead us there? Heb 10-19,20 (38e) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death (Satan) >> Resurrection anointing (57b) Paradox >> Opposites >> Jesus destroyed death to give us life (254e) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> We live because He is life >> Life is in the blood Heb 10-19 (122b) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Confidence in God >> Through prayer -- This verse goes with verse 22 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10-20,21 (83g) Thy kingdom come >> Jesus intercedes for us >> He is our Great High Priest Heb 10-21,22 (78f) Thy kingdom come >> Sincerity >> Embracing your first love >> Single devotion – We draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, after our heart has been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience through the blood of Christ and our body washed with pure water through baptism. We are bodily submerged under the water so we cannot breathe. The symbolism suggests we remain there until death and emerge as though alive from the dead, symbolic of the First Resurrection. In baptism water has no effect on us internally but wets our extremities. The anointing is designed for the body; it symbolizes freedom from sin, for a person who is dead cannot sin. These things happen through a sincere heart, but for the person who is insincere and gets baptized, after a while his clothes dry and the significance of the ceremony evaporates. For the Christian who believes in Jesus, though, the symbolism of baptism remains. God endows us with an anointing over a period of years, which increases over time. He knows when we are sincere and when we’re not. We can manipulate our conscience and say we are free from sin while in bondage, but we cannot fool God. Manipulating our conscience is a serious spiritual problem, for we cannot manipulate God who is greater than our conscience and knows all things (1Jn 3-20). The person who knows these things and cares about them and wants a genuine relationship with God will come to the realization that all his efforts to manipulate God are just self-manipulation, a course in futility, so we might as well be honest with Him and with ourselves. We can tell Him the truth about ourselves, and He will not condemn us, because He already knows. See also: Baptism (John the Baptist) He doubted; 2Cor 11-28,29; 247d (234b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Seeking the glory of His favor -- These verses go with verse 1 Heb 10-22 (74b) Thy kingdom come >> The heart >> God wants a relationship with your heart (103e) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> Cleansing of baptism -- This verse goes with verse 2. Jesus said in Jn 13-10, “He who has bathed [been baptized] needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean.” Water baptism represents the blood of Jesus cleansing us from an entire lifetime of sin from the past, so that we are spotless and clean, but the Bible does not support getting baptized again. We get baptized only once to figuratively wash away our past sins, suggesting that we don’t accumulate sins to be re-baptized; there is no ceremony for that. Instead, after baptism we work with the grace of God to overcome our various bondages to sin as a life-long process through repentance, and foot washing pertains to those sins that we inadvertently accumulate along the way, as we serve the Lord. See also: Baptism; Heb 10-21,22; 78f (103g) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Spirit like water >> Anointing cleanses you from the practice of sin – All these things have been accomplished by a single offering that Jesus made with His own body 2000 years ago. Since then, no offering (hence no other priest) is needed. Prior to Christ coming in the flesh, the old covenant high priest once a year, after making the sacrifice of a bull consecrated the altar by taking its blood into the temple and sprinkling the articles of the tabernacle, dipping his finger into the blood and sprinkling the lampstand and table of showbread, toward the Golden Altar of Incense; and on his way through the second veil, where he was permitted only once a year, He sprinkled blood on the Ark of the Covenant. When He emerged from the Most Holy Place, he sprinkled the people with blood saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded you.” “Our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” through the blood of Christ, and “our bodies [have been] washed with pure water.” We have gone from blood to water. Water represents the Holy Spirit in many instances of Scripture (Jn 4,7-15; Jn 7,37-39; 1Jn 5,6-8; Rev 21-6; Rev 22-1,17). Jesus more often than anyone made the connection between His blood sacrifice and the symbolism of baptism. The analogy makes the point that the cleansing blood of Jesus has directly resulted in His priestly ministry of sending the Holy Spirit. These two aspects of Jesus’ ministry cannot be separated or understood apart, like the offering of the high priest cannot be separated from his ministry with the people. After Christ sprinkles our hearts clean from an evil conscience, He washes our bodies from the practice of sin. We cannot have a priestly intercession without an offering, and we cannot have a clear conscience without freedom from the bondage of sin. What good would it do if God cleansed our conscience only that we should continue in bondage? God is not content with merely freeing our conscience from guilt; He also wants us free from sin. This is not to say that we will never sin again, for as long as we are in the body we will continue to sin. God is not concerned about that; rather, He is concerned about our addictions. He doesn’t want sin determining how we live, but wants us free to serve Him. See also: Old covenant priesthood; Rev 15,5-8; 40c (111d) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Water and the word – The blood of Christ and the water of the Spirit are the Spirit and the word. We must have both, for the word without the Spirit is dead religion, while the Spirit without the word is directionless, causing us to go shipwrecked in regard to our faith. (122b) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Confidence in God >> Through prayer -- This verse goes with verse 19 (124l) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love is the action of God’s faith (134a) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Your body >> Mediator between the natural and the spiritual realms >> Manifesting the Kingdom of God through obedience (154j) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> Having a good conscience >> God is my conscience -- This verse goes with verses 1-3 (191a) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Baptism >> Immersed in His Spirit Heb 10-23 (97j) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Rooted deeply >> Standing firm in the faith >> Immovable – Our faith is grounded in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, along with His resurrection and ascension. God wants us to hang onto His word and become deeply rooted, standing firm in the faith, immovable. We are not to aimlessly wander as Paul said in Eph 4-14, referring to immaturity. The opposite of being grounded in the faith is to be like a boat on the ocean during a storm, tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine and the waves of deceit, heading us toward the shoals, not standing firm in the faith. There are whole schools of thought that higher thinkers of various New Age religions have devised that people should spiritually wander, and wherever it leads them becomes their truth, and they have signposts as though buoys placed in the ocean, not secured to the ocean floor but allowed to drift wherever the currents take them, and they follow them, eventually leading to the shallows where their boat snags a reef and is destroyed by the battering waves. God wants us on land with a stable footing, so he can give us coordinates to His will. Bodily we move about the earth doing our part to promote the Kingdom of God, but spiritually we remain grounded at the foot of the cross. (102m) Thy kingdom come >> Faithfulness (Loyalty) >> Loyalty is unswerving (150ca) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Confessing Jesus to be saved >> Confessing Jesus as the Son of God -- This verse goes with verse 33 (205b) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> According to promise >> Promise of His rest -- This verse goes with verses 35&36 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10-24,25 (42a) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Blameless before God >> Prepare for His return (76k) Thy kingdom come >> Desires of your heart >> Desiring to be among the people of God – We should go to church, because the day of the Lord is closer than ever. It is very important that we assemble together as the last days come upon us, for we will need each other in a state of unity. To be isolationist Christians in the last days won’t work, for our needs will not be met as individuals but as a body of believers. God will expect us to be together when He comes and gathers us as a unit. It says that He will collect His people from one end of the sky to the other (Mat 24-31), not located in one place but in places grouped throughout the world, called Camps of the Saints, located in wilderness places. The loner Christian in the last days will need to join a church. (131i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Interdependence >> Encouraging one another – Unity will be required in the last days. All our squabbling must exit stage left. Without unity we can be together and still be isolated; we can stand right next to another person and still feel alienated. God wants us united in body, mind and Spirit, where we are communing with Him and with each other, as Jesus said in Jn 14-20, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” We are not just physically together, but spiritually enmeshed in Christ and in each other, sharing ourselves, being the very definition of unity. We are not just in physical proximity of each other, and not just sharing our possessions but our innermost being. Christ is in us and we are in Him, who dwells in the Father. There is only one Spirit; He is the Father who dwells in all, and all His children dwell in Him. This will be the requirement of surviving the last days: not knowing these things but experiencing them. We must find our place in the body of Christ and assimilate into our fellow saints. The Holy Spirit is the mortar between the bricks, united as one, each member standing firm, victoriously. We are one in Christ; if one suffers, we all suffer with him, and if one rejoices, we all rejoice with him (1Cor 12,12-27). (139f) Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >> Encouragement >> Encouraging one another – If there were one verse that encouraged the saints to be competitive, this would be it, only it encourages us to challenge one another to love and good deeds. Otherwise, there is no competition in His church. Heb 10-24 (62f) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Being clever >> Lure in your prey (124m) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love is the action of faith >> Love is the motive of faith (128a) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Goodness >> Doing good for the sake of your brother – This is perhaps the only verse in the Bible that talks about being competitive, suggesting that there is no competition in heaven. If a competitive spirit remains after God has been working in us to root out these things, then use it to challenge one another to love and good deeds. Try to be the person who can be the kindest and most thoughtful about the needs of others, and then go sit in the last place without boasting in the flesh. if everyone does this, we will all enjoy each others’ company, and the Church will grow, spiritually and numerically in the grace and glory of God. (234k) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> Be a blessing >> Be a blessing and love your brother Heb 10-25 (161g) Works of the devil >> Wandering >> Wander from the fold of the sheep (236l) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom >> The Rapture >> The day of the Lord Heb 10,26-39 (51c) Judgment >> Judging the Church along with the world >> Warning of wrath >> God warns the Church – This chapter contains the stiffest warning in the Bible about falling away from the faith, suggesting that if we backslide, we risk falling away altogether. "Complacency" is more palatable than backsliding, but there is no palatable word for falling away from the faith. In fact, some Christians say it is not even possible (Eternal security; once saved, always saved), yet this passage most succinctly contradicts these ideas, saying that the best precaution against falling away from the faith is to never backslide in the first place. The implication of backsliding is that we can always go back to our faith, but falling away has a connotation of permanence, that once we have completely fallen, we cannot return to our faith. Once we cross the invisible line and tell God we don’t want Him pricking our conscience anymore, if we really mean it, He will leave, and He won't return. This is different from the normal backsliding we all have done; the writer of Hebrews is saying we don’t want to walk down this road, not to step one foot on it. (204a) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Back-slider >> Practicing sin >> Dying in sin (209e) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Righteous saved with difficulty >> Righteous saved with hardship >> Righteous saved with endurance KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,26-31 (2n) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> Get out of His way >> Do not abuse His grace – We know the Bible was written to Christians, because unbelievers generally don’t read the Bible. Therefore, the Bible is not warning unbelievers but believers. When it comes time for judgment, it will do no good to rely on a time when they once believed; instead it will count against them by the fact that they knew better. God is worthy of a lifetime of faith and service. We should not approach Him as though trying on a pair a shoes, for it is a greater insult to God having once believed and have fallen away, than to never believe in Him at all. God created man in His own image with a will, who has done what he wanted. There are those who come to all the wrong conclusions about God, and there are others who serve Him. Those who serve Him, God will keep for himself, and the rest have made their decision. (20m) Sin >> Disobedience >> Demonstrating unbelief in the validity of God’s word (21i) Sin >> Premeditated sin >> Intending to abuse the grace of God – This passage speaks of a man who would continue sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth; the word receive means more than merely hearing or believing God’s word, but actually receiving the indwelling Spirit of salvation. Premeditation is implied here; a person doesn’t just fall away from the faith coincidentally or by accident, but develops an exit strategy, deciding at some point that Christianity is not a match for him. He goes back to his secular worldviews about reality, living in a world without God, and back to the sin of unbelief, yet there is something even more insidious that he misses. He wants to take back the right of self-determination. He misses being master of his personal universe as god of his own life. This denotes a massive ego to the point of narcissism. He refuses to relinquish this power to anybody, especially not to God. (27d) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Knowledge can bring a curse if you don’t walk in it (38b) Judgment >> Blood of Jesus >> God judged man through the blood of His son (45i) Judgment >> Of believer’s sin >> God will judge us for trampling on His son (47f) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of torment (49d) Judgment >> Those who are unfruitful in His kingdom are destroyed (64f) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Limits of God >> God cannot directly violate the will of man -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (70h) Autho rity >> Sin of familiarity >> Familiar with the truth (enemy of discernment) >> Familiar with Jesus in the Spirit -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (96l) Thy kingdom come >> Having a negative attitude about sin >> Having an attitude of unbelief -- These verses go with verses 37-39. Those who receive the grace of God and respond to the gospel and attain the hope of eternal life, but continue in sin without any change in the way they live, instead treat the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as a license to sin without taking godliness into account, we should not consider our true brothers and sisters of the faith. If they continues in sin without remorse, they do not treat the blood of Jesus as Holy, but have "trampled the Son of God under foot" and have "insulted the Spirit of grace." (97i) Thy kingdom come >> Attention >> Giving attention to the wrong things -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (157i) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of being hell-bound >> Having a reprobate mind -- These verses go with verses 37-39. Some people come to Christianity not knowing what God wants from them and later do an about-face and walk out the same door they entered. A person who walks away from God like this is without conscience, and the result is a reprobate mind, which is the closest thing to a psychopath, not to be confused with the sociopath, the difference between them being impulsive verses premeditative. The person who once had the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, walked with God for a season, and then turned His back on Him encapsulates the very meaning of "trampling underfoot the Son of God and regarding as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified." Sanctified means he was a Christian, set apart from the world. The writer of Hebrews is not talking about an unbeliever, but somebody who once believed and has returned to his unbelief; they are unable to be re-saved. We commit our most egregious sins as Christians because of our knowledge of the truth, still this is nothing compared to falling away from the faith. Someone like this has no conscience toward God and no sense of fear. Most unbelievers fear God, but a person who would turn his back on Him after he once believed is beyond hope. He has burned all his bridges. Once he has destroyed his faith by continually assaulting his conscience, he cannot repent and expect to believe again, and there is no forgiveness, since there is no alternate sacrifice for rejecting Christ. (161b) Works of the devil >> Wandering from the character of God >> Wander from the faith -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (181e) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Lawlessness >> Lawlessness is no excuse for sin >> Lawlessness does not cancel the power of sin -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (185d) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of lawlessness >> Denying Christ in spite of His proven identity -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (185l) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Blasphemy >> Unwilling to obey the revelation from heaven >> Unwilling to walk in God’s freedom -- These verses go with verses 37-39. licentiousness is unfortunately rampant in the Church today, but what they don’t know is that the consequences outlined in these verses are waiting for them and will pounce on them at the advent of their death, unless they repent of their unbelief. Before Christ they were in bondage to sin, but now that they have abused God's grace, He interprets their sin as unbelief, which is a far worse problem, for how can they now believe? This is tantamount to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, defined as having contempt for (or resisting) the Holy Spirit, because we know what He is saying is true. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable because it is un-repent-able. The annual sacrifice of the high priest could not take away sin that was committed in full knowledge; not even the blood of Christ can do that. This is why people shy away from the Holy Spirit – they know they will not obey Him and disobeying the Persuader of truth carries greater consequences than committing sin in ignorance, so they would rather remain ignorant of the Holy Spirit and remain in their dead religion. However, the choice of remaining ignorant carries its own consequences if it involves resisting the Holy Spirit; it is just as evil as sinning in full knowledge. (190g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Circumcision >> Undressing >> Naked before God (196a) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Lord, Lord >> Pretending to be a disciple -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (197c) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Spiritual laziness >> Rebelling against where God wants you to go >> Refuse to walk in freedom -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (199e) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> Throwing God away >> Renouncing your faith -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (201b) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> You are against Christ when your unbelief materializes >> Our disobedience is against Christ -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (202i) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from God >> Running from walking in faith >> Running from God through disobedience -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (203b) Denying Christ >> Dishonor God >> Dishonor God by your unbelief -- These verses go with verses 37-39 (206k) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Eternal security? >> Perish in your sin >> Perish in your omission of righteousness – If we have spent any time in Christian circles, we have heard the teachings of eternal security, “once saved always saved,” but the Bible simply doesn’t teach this. People misinterpret the Scriptures in the handful of verses they use to defend their beliefs. Following are the most common verses they use to defend their Eternal Security doctrine: John 10,27-29; Jn 6-37; Jn 10-28; 2Cor 1-22; Rom 11-29; Rom 8,38-39; Eph 2-8,9. There is a common thread running through all these verses; they discount the believer having the freedom to abandon the faith. For example, in Jn 10-29 Jesus said, “No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand,” but that doesn’t mean the believer can’t leave on his own volition. If we have determined to believe in God to the bitter end, the Bible supports that no one can make us stop believing in Him, but if we decide that Jesus is a fairytale, we can quit believing whenever we want, for God has not made us prisoners of our own faith. In contrast, the eternal security doctrine affords believers the freedom to backslide. They want to be assured their salvation regardless how they live, because they know they are wayward of heart. If people unintentionally stray from the faith, how much more will they stray when they have create a doctrine that allows them to do so? A person who has totally committed himself to the Lord has no fear of losing His salvation. (217g) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God gives up on you >> When God gives up on you, you are already in hell -- These verses go with verses 37-39. It is rare that someone would grieve God to the point that He gives up on the person, but the Bible teaches that eventually He will. Maybe they once believed, but since their interest in God has vanished, they have returned to the world, their faith reduced to recognizing a mere set of doctrines they once believed. Remember the Ten Virgins (Mat 25,1-13); the Lord is happy to light our flame the first time, but if the flame dies in our heart, how can we relight it? (223f) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Miss God >> Missing the point >> Miss the meaning of the truth KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,26-29 (94p) Thy kingdom come >> Perspective >> False perspective in the Church (111a) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit sets you apart by the word >> Set apart through repentance – If we don’t find freedom by overcoming sin in our lives, we will undo the grace of God, His forgiveness and become shipwrecked in regard to the faith. If we never overcome our addictions but go on willfully sinning, all that remains is “a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire.” This is strong language, implying that the Christian has an obligation to stop sinning, for God has given us all the tools we need to overcome. We have the potential to develop a very powerful anointing if we desire; all we have to do is listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and do what He says, nurturing Him with the word of God in our heart as He nurtures us with His Spirit, who will lead us into the will of God. (173g) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Unholy sacrifice (Penance) >> Offering sacrifice without God’s approval >> Sacrifice against the will of God -- These verses go with verses 1-4. Taking the full context of this chapter into account these words of warning are dedicated to addressing the false doct rine of transubstantiation, the belief that the bread and the wine of communion mysteriously transform into the body and blood of Christ at the blessing of the priest. The writer of Hebrews was prophesying that imposters of Christianity would gravitate to this heresy. “If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth,” that is, if we continue in our Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation after the Bible has exposed it as heresy, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” The body and blood of Christ that we have desecrated has been revoked. People are naturally superstitious and have a tendency to gravitate toward various incantations of witchcraft, which defines this pagan version of communion. This is a very stern warning; the book of Hebrews is not easy on Catholicism or on anyone who would invent false doctrine, for He gave them the book of Hebrews to steer them away from these ideas. See also: Catholicism; Heb 10-28,29; 173c Heb 10-26,27 (121e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope >> Expectation >> Hope is the expectation to receive >> What the wicked fears (expects) will come upon him Heb 10-26 (81i) Thy kingdom come >> Pray without ceasing >> Sinning because of a lack of prayer (109f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of God >> Revelation of God's word is true knowledge (201i) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from God >> Man’s will over God >> Man is unwilling to repent – Man can take away a person’s power of self-determination by throwing him in a maximum-security prison, telling him what to do and when to do it, yet the prisoner does not consider it a greater imposition than God's requirement of salvation, otherwise he would get saved. A jailer could place his prisoner in a straightjacket and throw him in isolation to rot, yet the prisoner still retains his identity, but God demands far more than that. He wants to recreate the prisoner until his identity changes, which is more than what any jailer would demand of him. (222b) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Do not give what is holy to dogs >> God does not entrust his treasures to dogs >> God retrieves his treasures when sheep revert to dogs -- This verse goes with verse 29 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,28-31 (218d) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> We choose our actions, not their consequences >> God controls the consequences of our actions (218g) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> Reaping the harvest of obedience >> The harvest from the word of God Heb 10-28,29 (58g) Paradox >> Opposites >> Old covenant versus the new covenant -- These verses go with verses 8&9. The gospel doesn’t make sense to most people; they don't understand the intent of the Scriptures; that is, they don't know what God is doing. What makes matters worse, there is a stark contrast between the Old and the New Testaments. In the Old, God commanded Israel to possess the land of Canaan and to destroy its inhabitants without mercy. Then the new covenant came along and God took the sword from our hand and put a Bible in its place and commanded us to preach the gospel. It is no wonder so few people understand God with differences like that. It is like we are dealing with two different gods, the god of the Old Testament and the god of the New, yet He is the same person. He hasn’t changed. He does things we don’t easily understand. He said not to worry about our enemies, that He will protect us and honor us if we will obey Him, and in the process many people will come to realize that He is a good person and will want to be part of whatever He is doing. What He is doing is raising up a Church in the midst of a hostile world and in the presence of the devil, who is helpless to do anything about it, because our God is very powerful and equally wise. God is unique and does not change, but requires us to change that we might understand Him. We are littered with sin, which makes it difficult to understand Him, because He is without sin, and it is the sin factor that separates us. Most of our faith in God is based on trust, because we really don’t understand Him. We trust that whatever He has commanded us to do is the best thing for us, and if we did anything else, we would suffer for it. (154h) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> God bears witness against the world >> Witness that the world is rebellious against God >> Witness against unbelief (173c) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Catholic doctrine versus the Bible – In the third century Constantine held up a cross as they went into battle under the inspiration of a vision he had recently seen, and after he won the battle, he made “Christianity” the official religion of Rome. Prior to that, paganism reigned over the Roman people, so when they instituted their newfound faith in Jesus, they integrated their pagan philosophies and practices into Christianity, and many Catholic superstitions have carried over and persist in the protestant Church to this day, much more in the Catholic Church. Later, during the dark ages when Catholicism was fully vested in the world, having a Bible was suppressed, but then Martin Luther one day (between 1507-1521) rummaging in the basement of Erfurt University library in Germany found a copy of the Bible that had been hidden in an obscure corner, dusted it off and began reading it and discovered just how far off course the Catholic Church had drifted from the truth. This proves that none of the Catholic priest at the time ever read the Bible, but used their own vain imaginations to invent the truth, always in ways that benefited the Church financially. Steeped in Catholic tradition, it would be no surprise to learn that they still don't read the Bible, most likely being the reason they don't encourage their parishioners to read it either, because if they did just a little, they would probably know more than the clergy. For example, in the darkest days of Church history, nobody understood the significance of the cross until the age of enlightenment brought it back into the light. See also: Catholicism; Heb 10,10-18; 172i / History of the Church; Jm 4,1-4; 198h Heb 10-29 (168c) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Do not conform to the world >> Do not conform to the world’s rejection of God (222b) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Do not give what is holy to dogs >> God does not entrust his treasures to dogs >> God retrieves his treasures when sheep revert to dogs -- This verse goes with verse 26 Heb 10-30 (209b) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Counterfeit relationship through religion >> Knowing about God, but not knowing God Heb 10,32-39 (2f) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> Keep your commitments in your walk with God (231k) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the kingdom >> Count the cost >> Don’t look back >> Don’t look back to bondage KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,32-36 (6d) Responsibility >> Advocate God’s cause >> Jesus’ yoke of death – The more we lose interest in the things of this world, the happier we are as Christians. People of faith have suffered ill treatment, shame, and loss of property (including their homes) throughout the generations, and their response has been greater joy to be counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ, and greater hope for eternal life in heaven where these things will never happen to them again. What is their ability to accept such abuse without cracking? They have died to self. What does it mean to die to self? In simple terms, it means they replaced their dignity with a God’s vision of reward, and what is His reward? Mostly, it is the opportunity to please Him, and He will express His gratitude at the resurrection of the righteous. (32g) Gift of God >> Father will honor you if you die to self >> Your faithfulness – The early Church experienced these things in the way they lived and in the persecutions they suffered; they endured their trials joyfully by faith. They were obviously closer to the days when Jesus walked the earth than we are, yet we are closer to His second coming than they were, so we have just as valid a motive to obey the Lord as they did. We have the written word of God just about as pure as they had. They didn’t have any advantage over us; we have even more opportunities than they had to serve the Lord, for each has his own personal Bible, yet it seems the early Church had greater faith and were far more obedient than us. Perhaps the only advantage they had that we don’t have is pure doctrines, whereas our doctrines have been muddied over the centuries by misuse and disuse. They were excited about their newfound faith in Jesus, yet the Holy Spirit can make it just as fresh and vibrant for us if we follow the persuader of truth. They realized the gospel was absolutely true, and we can come to that same realization. They lived the way they believed and made a big splash in the world. Many of them lived in communal settings and had all things in common. Many were martyred for their faith; others suffered long prison terms and seizure of their property merely for believing in Jesus. (96a) Thy kingdom come >> Positive attitude about suffering >> Suffering under the hand of men (97g) Thy kingdom come >> Attention >> Facing the direction of God’s will >> Focusing your attention on finishing the course – The writer if Hebrews reminds us of a day when the early Church was treated shamefully, imploring them to keep the faith. Earlier in this chapter he presented a dire warning that those who backslide are at risk of falling away and losing their faith and salvation and disallowed to retrace their steps. They were publicly mocked and ridiculed for their faith through tribulation, including physical abuse, and they endured their persecutions and supported those who were so treated. (99i) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance >> Enduring circumstances >> Humiliation (156e) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of salvation >> You will know them by their endurance (188d) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Suffering >> Growing pains >> Growing inwardly (192h) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Gain by losing >> Gain God’s kingdom to lose the domain of darkness >> Gain integrity to lose the world’s respect (206a) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to living in the spirit >> Conditions to partaking in the spirit (229ia) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Partaking of Jesus’ suffering >> Suffering as a Christian (233j) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Seek His glory without wavering >> Seek His glory through perseverance (236g) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> Invest your treasures into the kingdom >> Invest your flesh – God has expectations of His people, and He has forgiven us for a reason; He has saved us for a purpose. God has a mission for us to be witnesses of His grace and mercy as tools in His hand to save mankind from the consequences of their depraved sinful nature. (239b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Teachers >> Teachers "remind" their students >> Recalling the circumstances (243f) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecuting the Church of God – The writer of Hebrews is speaking to his initial audience, those who have read this manuscript for the first time, and reminded them when they first believed and were heatedly persecuted, they endured, but since their lives became normalized. Persecution subsided, and now they faced perhaps an even deadlier foe, one that posed a greater threat, complacency. While they were persecuted, they didn’t worry about their faith, since persecution itself proved their faith by their endurance. Persecution in many respects is the engine of faith that propels Christianity into the world and drives the gospel into people's hearts who are capable of receiving it. It’s when persecution ends that we should become concerned. Our lives might become easier, but faith becomes harder, and for those who know and love God it is a tossup what they prefer. Do we want an easy life or do we want faith to be easy? When we are not persecuted, it doesn’t seem that God is real, but when we are persecuted, suddenly His truth burns in our heart like a beacon. Heb 10,32-34 (143c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> The public >> The disciples ministered publicly Heb 10-32 (117k) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Seeing through the eyes of your spirit >> Light illumines your spirit Heb 10-33 (150ca) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Confessing Jesus to be saved >> Confessing Jesus as the Son of God -- This verse goes with verse 23 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,34-36 (120j) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Contentment >> Content with your standard of living >> Content with the means God gives you (227e) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of heaven >> God rewards endurance >> Keeping our rewards through endurance – The writer of Hebrews was saying, 'Return to the faith you once had.' It would be a travesty to suffer persecution just to later fall away from the faith and loose the reward. H eavenly rewards are based on the faith we showed Him on the day of our death, so if we once believed in Him more than we did at the end, God will reward us based on the level of faith we had at the end of our lives. God will not reward us for believing in Him more than we do now, since a deflated faith indicates contempt for our faith in Jesus. Faith requires humility, so a loss of faith tells God that we are unwilling to stoop to His level that required Him to save the lowliest of creatures. Jesus stooped lower than any man, and His starting point was at the height of heaven. God wants us free, but He also wants us obedient; He can’t use us while we are rebelling against Him. (248i) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Values >> Valuing God >> Do not value things that devalue God Heb 10-34 (25i) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Thief >> Someone stealing from you – In Mat 6-20 Jesus said, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.” Early Christians sought the treasures of heaven above the treasures of this life. Therefore, when the sinner in the first century had a notion to know God, he would have realized that the disciples of Jesus were investing in another world and storing-up treasures for another life they expected to inherit. All the faithfulness they showed God in this life would be reflected in the life to come in rewards they would receive that far exceed any trivial advantages of living for this temporal world. We need to adopt the value system of first century Christians. If we did, the world could take everything from us and it wouldn’t matter. Christians have been made to live under unjust laws that prohibited them from owning land and property. When we endure ill-treatment for the name of Christ, we feel we are doing something honorable, for God is watching us, and He wants to bless us with every spiritual blessing through our godly responses to the circumstances of this life. See also: Rewards; 116l / 2Jn-8; 79g (74e) Thy kingdom come >> Heart is man’s central value system >> Where man interprets worth (79d) Thy kingdom come >> Renewing your mind >> Monitor your thoughts (116l) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Rest in His yoke by dying to self >> Relax as God kills you – It is hard to accept someone stealing from us, yet it says that we should joyfully accept it (Jm 1-3,4). The only way we can joyfully accept such injustices is that we have cemented in our heart that we belong another world, that we are citizens of another country, children of another age. We are owners of everything but not in this life. In the world to come we will be magistrates of God’s entire creation, but for now we must humble ourselves and accept the negative circumstances that happen to us. God wants to teach us humility because His future calling will require it of us. God has no problem with us possessing things in this life, so long as they don’t possess us. We all have pressing needs, so when people come and take things from us, we seek God's justice, and if He tells us to be patient, then it is really God taking our possessions. Will we let Him? Do we trust Him? Does our dog let us take away his bone? God will not intervene or force His will on anyone, even when evil gains momentum like an avalanche. If he intervened once, He would have to do it again until He made robots of us all. Instead, God will reward us in the life to come for the injustices we have endured in His name. God allows the wicked to succeed for a season; He does this so He can judge them later with a far stricter judgment. Remember Pharaoh in the days of Moses (Exodus 9-16). God is using us to teach Satan and his disciples a lesson that rebellion doesn’t pay, and in the future God will put righteousness at the top and wickedness at the bottom where they belong. In the meantime the wicked have their way with us, but God has His ways of fixing things and vindicating His people through faith and patience. See also: Rewards; 125c (125c) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Joy is the result of investing in the kingdom >> Investing in a life of adversity – When the first Christians believed, they had great joy, love and commitment toward Christ, but later persecution became noxious to them, and they grew tired of being constantly humiliated. They wanted a reprieve, and so they sought it apart from the will of God. By their own authority they backed off their standard of faith toward God. The writer of Hebrews is saying that they were better off being persecuted and accepting the consequences of living a devout faith in a world that hates God, reminding them that there is a reward, and we need to fix our hope on it. We need to remember that eternal life is our objective; the more faithfulness we show, the better our experience in eternity, but if we do the will of God and then recant, we will lose the reward. This is not something taught in the Church today; we scarcely hear about rewards, much less seek them. If we backslide, to whatever level we fall, that will be the new standard God uses to reward our faithfulness. The Church does not pursue the rewards of heaven, though they seek to be rewarded in this life. Instead, they reject the teaching of rewards from a theological standpoint, which is the antithesis of seeking the truth. See also: Rewards; Heb 10-34; 25i (249a) Wealth (Key verse) (249ga) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >> True perception of wealth >> The infinite and eternal wealth of God >> God’s perception of wealth >> Our blessed hope of eternal life Heb 10-35,36 (87g) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience is logical to your spirit >> It makes sense to your spirit to obey God (98i) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> (Faith à Suffering [Integrity] à Glory [Reward]) (122f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Confidence in yourself as you die to sin >> Confident in what you are doing – The book of Hebrews addresses the consequences of falling away from the faith. We need to keep our mind set on the will of God, who wants us to maintain the same level of faithfulness that we showed Him at our greatest faith. He will give us works to do that will maintain a strong faith in Him if do them. This passage is saying that there are some people who after they have done the will of God did not receive what was promised. Why didn’t they receive what was promised? Their endurance failed! God remembers our past faithfulness, and He wants us to maintain our highest level of faith and not lose heart. To throw away our confidence is to trade it for sin. We have need of endurance, indicating that confidence and endurance are related in this way: we are willing to suffer because we believe in Jesus, but we cannot endure our circumstances apart from confidence. When hard times hit, we question our faith, and when doubt replaces what we once believed, we lose our confidence to endure our tribulations. See also: Heb 6-10,11 and 2Jn-8. (205b) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> According to promise >> Promise of His rest -- These verses go with verse 23. People continually harp on the promises of God, but here it says, “You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised.” We don’t just sit around and wait for God to give us stuff while we live anyway we want. Rather, receiving the promises of God is based on endurance. It is like the love of a spouse; we must engender and nurture love in hope of seeing love in return. Our spouse is supposed to love us even if we don’t always love her/him, but it makes the relationship go that much smoother when we show love first. In the same way in our relationship with God; He first showed love, and now it is our turn to reciprocate, and for this reason we can’t live anyway we want and expect to receive the promises of God. If we want to be partakers of His promises, we must be participants of His grace and live according to His will. (247k) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> The will of God >> We play our part in the will of God >> Doing the will of God Heb 10-35 (190f) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Circumcision >> Undressing >> Dismantling the outer tabernacle -- This verse goes with verses 8&9 Heb 10-36 (121b) Hope (Key verse) (121j) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope Based On Faithfulness >> Hope based on endurance KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10,37-39 (47d) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of destruction – How much more explicit do the Scriptures need to be before people will finally realize that it is possible to lose our salvation? There are dozens of passages just as convincing as this one, yet none of them can move some people from their Eternal Security beliefs. The only reason they believe in eternal security is that they want to believe it, not because it is in the Bible. Turning from Him is turning to the destruction of their souls. Then there is the belief that when a person is thrown into hell, he is burned up and ceases to exist, but they don’t understand that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked are the same kind of resurrection, and we know that the First Resurrection is described as receiving an indestructible body (1Cor 3-15), so He will also give to those who are condemned to hell an indestructible body and thrown into the lake of fire. (55k) Paradox >> Gain the world to lose your soul >> he who saves his life shall lose it -- These verses go with verses 26-31. God deeply loves His children; He died for them; He has big plans for them in eternity, and He’s really looking forward to seeing us all in heaven and becoming one big happy family, and He wants as many to be there as possible, but those who recant their faith and want to leave, He can’t make them stay. They are making a big mistake leaving the faith; they are sacrificing their eternal future for nothing. They are inadvertently accepting the terms of eternal damnation in a hellish environment, just so they can pretend to live in a world without God for the last fleeting years of their useless lives. Happiness is promised to no one; it is not even a goal that Scripture advocates in this life, and leaving the faith will assure them the opposite. Those who fall away from the faith are some of the most miserable people on earth; they don’t want to take orders from God, preferring to follow the ways of the world, preferring a secular point of view, knowing they are living a lie, but they don’t care. They would rather serve their flesh than serve God. (64f) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Limits of God >> God cannot directly violate the will of man -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (70h) Autho rity >> Sin of familiarity >> Familiar with the truth (enemy of discernment) >> Familiar with Jesus in the Spirit -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (96l) Thy kingdom come >> Having a negative attitude about sin >> Having an attitude of unbelief -- These verses go with verses 26-31. When it says, “My righteous one shall live by faith,” He was saying that we should believe as long as we live. If we become Christian when we were fifteen and lived to be eighty-five, God expects us to believe in Him the whole time and steadily increase our faith. It sounds like a marriage relationship, and in fact that is exactly correct. The covenant we make with God is as much a marriage relationship as marriage to a spouse; we’re in it for life. We see a lot of divorces these days, and they’re happening at a time of deep-seeded apostasy in the Church, a time when people are also falling away from the faith, suggesting there is a connection, and the connection is that both are rooted in faithfulness, suggesting that faithfulness is most lacking in the Church today. Faithfulness is one of the fruits of the Spirit, further suggesting that all the fruits are lacking in the Church, meaning that most Christians are not led by the Spirit, instead they disobey Him. This is the definition of blasphemy, and it leads to a reprobate mind. We are the salt of the earth, and the saltiness of the Church has become tasteless, and there is no way to become salty again, and for this reason the world is plunging into ruin and destruction, and it is the Church's fault! (97i) Thy kingdom come >> Attention >> Giving attention to the wrong things -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (157i) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of being hell-bound >> Having a reprobate mind -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (161b) Works of the devil >> Wandering from the character of God >> Wander from the faith -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (181e) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Lawlessness >> Lawlessness is no excuse for sin >> Lawlessness does not cancel the power of sin -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (185d) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of lawlessness >> Denying Christ in spite of His proven identity -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (185l) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Blasphemy >> Unwilling to obey the revelation from heaven >> Unwilling to walk in God’s freedom -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (196a) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Lord, Lord >> Pretending to be a disciple -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (197c) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Spiritual laziness >> Rebelling against where God wants you to go >> Refuse to walk in freedom -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (199e) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> Throwing God away >> Renouncing your faith -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (201b) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> You are against Christ when your unbelief materializes >> Our disobedience is against Christ -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (202i) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from God >> Running from walking in faith >> Running from God through disobedience -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (203b) Denying Christ >> Dishonor God >> Dishonor God by your unbelief -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (204d) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Back-slider >> Practicing sin >> The apostasy – The Church has been waiting for the return of Christ for 2000 years and He still hasn’t come. For us it seems that God will never come or that He is delaying beyond reason, but from God’s perspective He has only been gone a couple days (2Pet 3-8). Some people have given up waiting for Him, suggesting that their faith was on a timer and the time has expired. When they believed in Jesus, one of two things had to happen before they would ever see the Kingdom of Heaven: either they would die young or the Lord would soon returned, and if neither of these happened and years passed into decades, they wouldn’t have faith to believe in God for the long run. Maybe they had enough faith to believe in God for a couple years, but after their faith ran dry, they returned to the world where faith was not needed, which was their plan all along. God gives most of us a long life to see if we really believe in Him. He doesn’t want his kingdom littered with people who are only willing to believe in Him for a little while and then return to a world that belongs to Satan. If we prefer to serve the devil over God, then He doesn’t want us in His heaven, and we prove that we don’t belong there. His attitude toward short-timers is that if they want to leave, then leave. 2Pet 2-22 says, "It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'A dog returns to its own vomit,' and, 'A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire." He takes no pleasure in those who won’t believe in Him for long, who return to the world, the flesh and the devil, back to secularism and carnality. (207c) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Eternal security? >> God will accept you into His heaven if you overcome >> Overcome temptation to give up the faith – God doesn’t care how many times we fall down; He only cares that we get back up and continue on our way with Him, but if we give up on God, it is the ultimate offense, suggesting that it involves blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. How do those who believe in Eternal Security get around verse 39 when it uses the word “destruction”? Eternal security people think they can live any way they want without fear of losing their salvation. They say, ‘we would never intentionally abuse the grace of God because we’re Christians,” but their doctrines teach otherwise, that there is no harm in falling away from the faith, for even if they do, they will remain saved and still on course with heaven, but the Bible doesn’t teach this at all. Instead, the Bible teaches that if we live like the world, we will be condemned with the world (1Cor 11-31,32). The Church belongs to God, but the world is going to hell. God wants us to preserve our faith, so our faith can preserve our souls. (217g) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God gives up on you >> When God gives up on you, you are already in hell -- These verses go with verses 26-31 (243a) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Reacting to persecution >> Falling away through persecution KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Heb 10-37 (94d) Thy kingdom come >> Perspective on this life >> Perspective on time (214h) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> God’s time is soon >> Relatively soon Heb 10-38,39 (85l) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing the Son by obeying the Father >> Obeying the law by faith in the cross >> Obedience represents our faith Heb 10-39 (70k) Authority >> Believer’s authority >> We are the salt of the earth (Preservative) See next page