The earth is the Lords   

Hebrews

Updated: July 7, 2007

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    HEBREWS
    [C]2000-07 by Richard L Zorek

    • Heb 1:1: In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, God did not reveal all of Himself in any one time. The process of revelation was a continuous one and continues to be.
    • Heb 1:2: Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds Does this suggest that Jesus was around at creation?
    • Heb 1: 3: The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ..."the express image of his person...": "person" is the Greek hupostasus, substance or person.
    • Heb 1:4: Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they Jesus is not equal with the angels.
    • Heb 1:14: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? A purpose of angels.
    • Heb 2:1: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." Neglect of the word of God will lead to drifting into sin.

    • Heb 2:4: 4God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. The word translated "gift," and it really means "shares," as if the idea was that God gives a share of His spirit to every man.

    • Heb 2: 15: "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." The instrument of Satan is the fear of death.

    • Heb 3:9-10: Your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways." God tried to teach them for forty years, yet in the end they did not know Him.
    • Heb 3:12: Take heed, brethren, lest there be any of an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God It doesn't matter how holy or righteous you think you are. If you do not have faith in the living Word--abdiing in it, assimilating it, making it a part of your life--then you are in danger of departing from God. Unbelief is a departure from God. You become evil when you allow unbelief to control your mind.
    • Heb 3:19: ".....they could not enter in because of unbelief." Because of their unbelief, God's people went through life full of misery, doubt, fear, restlessness. They missed the promised rest during the period of kings and prophets. God also offered it to David's generation, but they didn't enter into it, either. In every generation it was refused--never appropriated, never understood.
    • Heb 4:2: For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. If you do not believe what you hear, it is as though you did not hear it at all.
    • Heb 4: 10: for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. We no longer have to work to earn salvation.
    • Heb 4: 11: Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. The command is to rest. Anything outside of that is disobedience.
    • Heb 5: 4: No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So, just going to a seminary or Bible college doesnt make one a priest. They must first and foremost have the calling from God.

    • Heb 5:13-14 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. The church has an overabundance of "infants." This is not a bad thing, because everyone has to start somewhere at some time. But the problem is when too many remain infants. Just picture a church with many adults sitting in the pews, still wearing diapers and carrying bottles.....and you have a picture of one problem in the American churches. Heb 6:1-3: Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. The list of of things elementary and basic. Time to move on to other things of a more mature nature.

    • Heb 6:18: God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. It is impossible for God to lie. It is often easy to try and view God in some kind of "humanistic" way and think that since it is in man's nature to lie, that God can. God cannot.

      1This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him,

    • Heb 7:2: "To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace. Psalms 110 says that all priests are established after the order of Melchizedek. This might be helpful to indicate who our tithes should go to: Melchizedek was described as being righteous.
    • Heb 7:12: "For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law" Laws are made to serve an order. If the order is changed, the laws must also change.
    • Heb 9:27: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement." If we are to take this at face value, then death is a universal experience and it happens to everyone only once. Those who claim to have died, and come back, would, based on this, have experienced a near-death experience, but, obviuosly did not die. Can God override that one appointment?
    • Heb 10:1-4 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. The law was just a shadow of the real thing to come, Jesus.
    • Heb 10: 19-22: Knowing Jesus has opened the way, let us draw near to God. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Access has been given to us for a bold approach to God. The point is simple: we must take advantage of this access, and take it with boldness. We can have boldness because we enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. If we entered as the Old Testament high priest did, with the blood of animals, we wouldn't have boldness. But with the blood of Jesus providing a new and living way which He consecrated with us, we really can come into the presence of God with boldness. The veil separated the Holiest from the holy place. To enter into the Holiest, you had to pass through the veil. But this veil separating man from God's intimate presence is forever opened wide, being torn into two from top to bottom.
    • Heb 10: 25-26: Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching." If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all our sin. (I John 1:7). By forsaking the assemble we make not contineu to have our sins cleansed. By coming to the service we are there to "exhort" one another. (Exhort means to urge by strong peresuasive argument, admonition, advice or make urgent appeal. Urge on or encourage especially by shouts; "The crowd cheered the demonstrating strikers" (synonym) cheer, inspire, urge, barrack, urge on, pep up (hypernym) encourage (hyponym) cheerlead (derivation) exhortation2. force or impel in an indicated direction; "I urged him to finish his studies" (synonym) urge, urge on, press (hypernym) advise, counsel (hyponym) rush, hurry (derivation) exhortation

    • Heb 10:27: "But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary." Deep within each person is the knowledge that if we sin, there are consequences.
    • Heb 10:28-31: Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. To sin willfully is defined in Hebrews 10:29. It speaks of someone who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace. It is a knowing, deliberate rejection of Jesus' great work for us on the cross. In a sense, every sin is a "willful sin." But here, the writer to the Hebrews speaks of something much more severe and relevant to these discouraged Jewish Christians who contemplated a retreat from a distinctive Christianity and a return to Judaism with its sacrificial system. This is turning your back on Jesus.
    • Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen Some translations say "assurance of things hoped for." Faith is the reality of things hoped for. James Hastings wrote "Faith in God is a moral act; it is not an emotion, an impression, the result of considerations which act upon a man from without; it is an act in which he excercise moral choice. To have faith we mnust will to have it. This is not to say there can be true faith apart from reasonable grounds of faith. But these grounds may exist, they may be apparent, and yet faith may be absemnt, because the temper and spirit of the man may make him reluctant to exert his will, or because he misconcieves the nature of the act. Men confound faith and opinion; even in opinion a man's moral habits and tendencies count for a great deal; and what we often predict man's opinion will be from what we know of his character. But in the formation of opinion he the will has no direct function except to compel the intellect to investigate the facts by which opinion should be determined. In faith the case is wholly different. When the facts which should command faith are present and seen, faith may be withheld. Faith is an act of the will; and if we suppose that we shall come to believe in God in Christ as the result of external forces which compel belief, we shall not believe at all. And when faith, resting on adequate grounds is assaulted by doubt, the doubt must be met by a resolute decision. ("The Great Texts of the Bible; James Hastings; Charles Scribners Sons; 1912). Faith is not belief without proof but trust without reservations--trust in a God who has shown himself worthy of that trust. To use a trinitarian framework: God the Father makes these promises; God the Son confirms them in his words and deeds; and the Holy Spirit reassures us of their reliability and seals those promises within our heart.
    • Heb 11:2: For by it the elders obtained a god report or, for by it the saints of old gained approval.
    • Heb 12:1: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every wieght, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set befoe us Today is the day to be delivered from sin!
    • Heb 12:4: Ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin If sin has any strategy after your conversion, it is to break that link, to deny you access to the promises and power of God--and to allow itself to regain its former hold on your life. Doubt, in it proper context is part of our struggle against sin. It is an integral part of growing in faith and encountering resistance from our old nature in doing so.
    • Heb 13:4 "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Marriage is not a license for lust.

    • Heb 13:5: "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." "conversation"=character. It's an old English word for "way of life."

    • Heb 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterdaym, today and forever" Our identity in Him is unshakeable and unchangeable from generation to generation. In this, and in no other way, can we have an identity that is independent of circumstances and functional in all of life's relationships.

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