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 Endtime Ministries...
Australian Bible College Course

The Calvary Bible Fellowship of N.Z.
has given permission for an Australian Diploma Course
to be constructed along the needs
of our Despatch subscribers.

HEBREWS CHAPTER THIRTEEN –
      A SUMMARY OF FAITH.

We have seen in Hebrews chapter eleven a wonderful list of heroes of the faith, and a description of what faith is all about. We have seen from chapter 11these glorious truths:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.” (Hebrews 1:1,2).

Because of FAITH in the fact that God exists, and all the facts about the unseen reality of the spiritual world, the ELDERS obtained a good report from God. These elders were honoured by the Lord in chapter eleven. WE ourselves must want to know how WE can have a performance of FAITH in God that will please Him, too.

Some today have acquainted FAITH with getting material benefits from God BIG TIME! They have turned FAITH into a metaphysical manipulation of FORCES or ENERGIES to get what they want, selfishly. But God has given to us a down-to-earth description of the performance of FAITH, which is nothing like the hyper-faith teachers of these latter days are telling the gullible. This PERFORMANCE of FAITH is found in chapter thirteen. God does not want us, necessarily, to live out dramatic lives filled with escape from lions, resisting kings, not bowing to giant golden idols, or seeing the Lord raise people from the dead. We may see very dramatic times before we die, who knows? But God wants us NOW to live by faith in our every day encounters. This is why He gave us the instructions that follow:

THE PERFORMANCE OF FAITH – our duties.

1. Continue to LOVE those who belong to Jesus Christ. (13:1).
It is easy to give up on Christians! Many today have been hurt and buffeted by church events; break-ups and divisions have caused untold distress to many. A friend in Darwin tells of his own friends who have been distressed by what has happened in the churches to them, and have walked away from all believers!  This must never happen to us. We must continue to love the believers more than anyone in the world, for they are our “brethren” in Christ our Lord.

2. Continue to show hospitality. It is easy in these days to shut our doors to all others, because we have been battered by churches and false teachers abound. We can withdraw into our privacy. But GOD has told us to open our doors. (Remember Genesis 18).

3. Remember the prisoners and ill-treated. We have no prisoners for the FAITH in our day, but this may well change before we get through the future days. (13:3).

4. Let marriage be held in honour, it is an honourable estate. GOD has said “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and that seventh commandment has been given to the Church of Jesus Christ. (13:4).

5. GOD has commanded us to be sure that our lives are free from the love of money. (13:5). Multitudes in churches today are still trapped in the “prosperity” doctrines that destroy the faith-life. Take heed to what God has said. (Compare 1Timothy 6:5-11). We must withdraw ourselves from men who teach that “gain is godliness” - or those who have mastered the “faith” techniques of getting MONEY from God have GODLINESS!

6. Remember those who teach you and lead you. Do not just take things for granted.

7. GOD has commanded us not to be carried away by varied and strange teaching. This is a snare of our day! There is a cult group on every corner. The teachers, books and videos which people listen to today are often filled with “varied and strange” teaching which is alien to God’s Word. Keep your noses in the BIBLE, and learn sound doctrine. You will not then be deceived. Don’t be “carried away” by a teacher’s fervour, or emotional presentation, or charm and personality. Counterfeit teachers do not come with warts on their noses, and a hunch back. (13:9).

8. Continue to offer up to the Lord a sacrifice of praise, no matter what. He loves us and will not allow anything into our lives that we cannot handle through the Holy Spirit within. It will seem like a real sacrifice at times, to praise God in the midst of nasty happenings. (13:15). Let’s compare 1 Peter 2,5,9. A great part of our spiritual duties are to be involved in PRAISING our God. Especially does this apply when we have trials and problems. Our friend June has just seen the earthly body of her husband of 56 years go down into the ground in burial. She knows his soul is with the Lord in Heaven – and she is praising God in the midst of her grief.

If we always “praise the Lord” we will find peace and release from our trials.
THIS IS PART of the performance of FAITH!

We have a number of SACRIFICES to offer up, you and I.
The sacrifice of our own bodies (Rom. 12:1) and the sacrifice of good works (Heb. 13:10).

DISCUSS THESE THINGS.

9. (13:17) obey your teachers and submit to them. This has become a difficult and even impossible endeavour in these days of heresy, New Age teachings in the denominations and the great falling away! Many of the true Christians who trust in God’s Word have NO godly leaders who are true to God’s scriptures to follow. But, the Lord Jesus is our intimate Friend and Great Teacher, and we can certainly obey HIM with all our hearts. This of course is what the Bible means, for only teachers that follow the scriptures in a dedicated way can be obeyed. It is only when they bring the Word of God with purity of doctrine that they can be considered teachers and leaders as referred to in this verse.

10. Pray for Christian leaders. (13:18). We must pray for the safety of all those brave souls who are standing fast in these terrible days, and are giving leadership to the remnant Church. People like Dave Hunt and Stanley Monteith, for the struggling leaders of small congregations who are standing for the Truth that is unpopular in these times. Pray for the home church leaders, for individuals who are seeking to lead friends and family into the liberation of the Gospel –perhaps standing all alone without denominational support. These too are “teachers” and “leaders.”

11.
Pray for Endtime Ministries’ too! We need your prayers so much.
Pray for our Internet Website, it is “leading” many into God’s Truth. (Asia and her phone call).

OUR HOLY FAITH in these days will bring to us many precious blessings 13:5,6:
“…for HE hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, THE LORD is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

WE ALL MUST HAVE DEALINGS WITH GOD!

There is not one person on earth who will escape having dealings with God! They may think they can, but it is a delusion. (12:25-29). See in verse 25 that God is shown as SPEAKING from Heaven, it is a present tense announcement – an abiding ever-present revelation which God brings to us in His word. HE speaks to us and deals with us.

Dare we take His revelation lightly?

One Who speaks to them personally from the Heavenly realms, disclosing and enlightening us to final realities, confronts Christians. No matter what part of the combined Scriptures we delve into, it is the SAME GOD Who speaks to us. (26). If the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob shook the earth in the time of Moses, He will surely do as He says here – shake the earth and heaven.  What does verse 26 of chapter 12 mean?

THIS IS A TRANSIENT, TEMPORAL ORDER THAT WILL PASS.

The Lord and His Word that abide forever, not the universe and earth, as we know it. See Mark 13:31, 11 Peter 3:7. We saved ones, Christ-ians, are destined to share a Kingdom (or God’s rule and sovereignty) that belongs to the abiding eternal order (12:28). Let us look further into this - Daniel 2:44; 7:18-27. LET US HAVE GRACE says verse 28. This surely means that because of the GRACE God has shown us and given us, our sheer gratitude to the Lord ought to “constrain” us – or irresistibly impel us- to serve God in ways that are pleasing in HIS sight. We must appropriate the GRACE, which is abundantly available to His Blood-bought ones!

IN HIS PRESENCE.

In His Presence we should have AWE. In the presence of such a prospect as the earth and heaven shaken, and we ourselves taking part in an eternal order that will NEVER CEASE, we should have a great sense of our unworthiness. (see 11Peter 3: 9-14). We are privileged to call God “our God” – do you realize this? We will survive the encounter with the Holy God because of RIGHTEOUSNESS, this righteousness was imputed to us, and it is not of our own making. We could NEVER survive the judgment of the God, Who is a consuming fire (verse 29) if we did not have the righteousness of Christ Himself reckoned to our own account. I have included a wonderful leaflet about this for your study. (Deut.4: 24).

Let us read together the Apostolic Benediction found in 13:20 –21.
 

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