September 26 - The Curse of the Law

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron - Matt 28
Covington Witnessing, esp Charles and New Age Lady
Preaching at KSU
Students still traveling - Back to School
North Cobb Homecoming Ministry
Shelby's Detention

Text – Zechariah 5:1-4

Last week we looked at a really complicated lighting system, what was it made up of? It was a seven pronged lampstand with tubes running from a big golden bowl and the bowl was connected to two olive trees. What was the main point of this lighting system? That it was automated, and apart from God we can do nothing. The verse the sums it all up is,

Zechariah 4:6 Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts."

Who are the two olive trees representative of? First the King and the High Priest, and more permanently Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. One thing that I forgot to mention completely was the oil and what it represents. What sort of oil was this? Olive oil. What was its purpose? Fuel to the lamps so they would stay lit.

Looking at the New Testament, what does the lampstand represent? The church, and individual churches. How are churches fueled by God? Through the Word of Christ:

John 17:17-19 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

So the oil here represents God's Word to his people, under the Old Covenant this was delivered in sundry and amazing ways, but today it is delivered through God's Son, as revealed through the Bible. You remember that I said that the Hebrew is vague on exactly how the oil gets from the bowl to the lampstand, it's either 7 tubes or 49 tubes or maybe and probably 7 tubes from the bowl and 7 tubes connecting the lamps together. This way the lights are all connected and this reminds us to constantly be edifying the saints, and fellowship of individual churches, and sharing Bible verses and encouraging one another to shine forth in the world.

Ephesians 5:14 "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

Last week it could be said that the Word is a blessing, an anointing that fuels us and allows us to do great works. Our lesson today is going to look at the Word of God not as a blessing but as a curse. Before we read Zechariah I want to show you that just because we now walk in the light does not guarantee we will always be in the light, a church can lose its way and become mired in either doctrine or love, failing to love righteousness, and be both hearers and doers of God's Word.

Revelation 2:4-5 I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

So let's read Zechariah 5:1-4 and see the Word turned towards those who are neither hearers nor doers and see that it is a curse to many.

Zechariah 5:1-4 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits." Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones."

Picture this scroll for our intents and purposes as a flying Bible, that is how Zechariah would have understood it, the very Word of God in action.

v.1-2 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits."

The first time we see this scroll it is airborne, but not moving, the Hebrew means it is hovering. This scroll is MASSIVE, it's the size of a room, specifically the Holy Place of the Temple. A cubit is the length of your arm from elbow to finger-tip. It's not particularly strange that it's so big, there are several large scrolls of ancient antiquity. This would have been a parchment scroll, animal skin, and we see that it is going without the help of men, just as we saw earlier that the lamps stay lit without the help of men.

First we just see it hovering, but soon we'll see it moving:

v.3 Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land."

It goes out, not just over Israel, but over the whole world. This curse is the law of God, which is not a sin itself, but reveals sin in our lives and shows what sin is, and so such it becomes a curse to all sinners:

Romans 7:7-10 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

Read verse 10 again, The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

That started long ago in the Garden of Eden, but it continues today in our own sin:

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

How can we say that the law of God is a curse to the whole world if the whole world hasn't read God's law? It's not for lack of effort that they don't have the law, missionaries have been sending the Bible out for thousands of years, but many reject it and outlaw it and burn it and think that they have found another way to be justified, but this law doesn't need to be in written form to stand against sinners, indeed, just hearing the law doesn't set those who have the Bible above those who don't.

Romans 2:12-16 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

There are no lack of verses that back this up, do you get the point though, that the Bible can be both a blessing and a curse? It reveals the words of eternal life, but if we don't heed them we will be cursed by the Bible. Alternately we don't trust in just reading the Bible and sort of keeping it, though many people in the past did, and many people today still do. Christ was very harsh towards them:

John 5:45-47 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

Let's look at a short sample of the sort of curses Moses gave, this is Deuteronomy 27:

"'Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say, 'Amen.'

"'Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"'Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"'Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"'Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner (traveler), the fatherless, and the widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

I'm going to summarize verse 20-23 for the sake of you getting the point, go back and read this later with your parents, but there is a greater point here than the individual sins that are being committed. Somebody read 1 Thessalonians 4:3 for us before we go any farther:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality...

"'Cursed be anyone who performs sexual immorality, for they sin against God, themselves, and other people.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"'Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"'Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"'Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

This is just a taste of how the law of Moses can curse, there are many other ways. Let's go back to Zechariah and see how it will curse according to his vision:

v.3 For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side.

These are commandments, right? Stealing is the eighth, lying is the ninth. These are the two that I find people have the least problem with, but here God is saying that these are fit to be cursed and eradicated by his law. His perfection requires perfection, he cannot tolerate even the smallest of sins.

Revelation 21:8 ...all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Yesterday we witnessed to a young man named Charles who said he would get into Heaven because he knew God and loved his world and the people in the world. I asked him he ever lied to anyone, he said he had, I said he had failed to love that person. I asked if he had ever stolen from someone, he said he had, I told him that he wasn't loving that person. I asked about hating someone and looking with lust, and Charles realized quite quickly that he wasn't loving people, but that the curse of the law would be his downfall. This is why people curse: cursed words are an indication of the condition of our heart, for out of our heart our mouth professes:

Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Is this law just incidentally a curse, and God is sad and surprised that it brings death? No, not at all, in verse 4 we see that God is the one using his law a curse:

v.4 I will send it out, declares the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.

This curse will find the sinner where they live, there is no hiding or amnesty or statute of limitations.

Numbers 32:23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.

God is making an allusion in verse 4 to the law causing those who break it to be similar to lepers. (Leviticus 14:43-45) Leprosy defiles a person and prevents them from standing in God's presence, and they are required to tear down their house and take it out of the city. The law will put a person out of God's presence and city forever. It is very tempting to say that this is another reason why Jesus Christ went out of the city, that they destroyed the temple of his body and took it outside of the city and this was God symbolically taking all sin outside of the city in Christ's body. However, the New Testament doesn't affirm this so we'll have to wait 'till we get to Heaven to be sure this was a direct fulfillment. I'm fairly sure it's right though.

But there is a direct fulfillment about this curse in the New Testament and so let me show you that while we were all condemned under the law, cursed by our failure to affirm and do everything there-in written. Let's look at one that we haven't personally been cursed by:

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 If a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

None of us has been cursed by being hanged on a tree, but do you know anyone who has?

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."

So there is hope for the cursed, there is an anointing from the Anointed One whom was cursed for us, he stood in our place, consumed by his Father's wrath for our transgressions. We must repent towards God, we must trust wholly in his saving work, we must apologize for our sins and seek forgiveness from the God who justifies.

If we won't, this curse will lead to our damnation, not because the law is sin, but because that very commandment which meant life has become death to us when we transgressed it.

Those who will not repent are storing up wrath to be revealed on the day of wrath, as Isaiah says so well,

Isaiah 24:4-6 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.

Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt...Beloved, I implore you, in the name of Christ, do not put your trust in this law which we cannot keep, rather put your trust in the Law Giver and Keeper, Christ himself, who though he was perfect in every way, gave himself up to deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our great God and Father:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."

August 8th - Defiled and Cleansed

Prayer Requests
Summit
New School Year
Survey of World Religion

Shelby's Braces

Costello's Grandmother's continued recovery

Alyssa's teachers' pregnancies

Kia's Family

Kari's friend's family

Text – Mark 7:14-23, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Welcome to class.
Class Archive Website: http://netwetters.blogspot.com/

About me; my name is Canyon Shearer, I’m 28 years old. I am in the Air Force, and I work on F-22’s. I am Summit’s volunteer pastor of evangelism.

You can call me Mister, Sergeant, Pastor, Sir, or just plain Canyon. One of the reasons I don’t require you to use a title is because I would rather think of you as young adults than children, and I will give you my utmost respect and hope you will do the same.

I can be reached at 928-606-6906 or truthintext@comcast.net. I work in a classified area, so can’t have my phone at work, so e-mail or facebook is the best way to get in touch with me.

My teaching style is somewhat different than a lot of middle-school teachers, I’m not big on games or goofiness, but rather I like to spend most of the class in the Bible, letting it speak for itself. God esteems his Word higher than we can possibly imagine, so I request and require reverence towards the Bible. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. There is an answer to every question, so please don’t hold back.

Today I want to look at Mark chapter 7, the reason being is that it will lay a foundation for every other part of Christianity. This is as important today for us as it was for the original audience because we have the same problem they had.

First let me give you some context. The religious people of Jesus’ day were called the Pharisees, they thought they were somebody special and extra good dudes. One of the reasons they thought they were so good is because they made up all sorts of rules that they would keep instead of the rules that God gave them.

For example, let’s look at

Mark 7:9-13 And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban"' (that is, given to God)—then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."

The 5th Commandment is to honor your father and mother…but that’s pretty difficult, so the Pharisees changed the law so that if anyone would promise their inheritance to them, then they were absolved of taking care of their parents. Because of their new law they rejected God’s law, but still felt pretty good about themselves.

The problem is that they thought they were inwardly pretty good people, and they felt that way because they were keeping a lot of rules. The rule which we are going to look at today that they made up was a requirement to wash your hands before you eat. The Pharisees thought they were keeping themselves from being defiled, or made unclean or unfit for Heaven, and when Jesus’ disciples didn’t wash their hands the Pharisees were greatly offended. I want to show you today that we have an infinitely bigger problem than unwashed hands.

Mark 7:14-23 And he called the people to him again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him." And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" ( Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

In the Old Testament God gave quite a few laws concerning what a person could and couldn't eat. These were for a spiritual purpose and not a natural purpose, for example, shellfish are scavengers and will eat basically anything and so in order to set his people apart from eating something that ate all sorts of garbage, God forbid the eating of shellfish. Similarly, pigs are gross animals who love to roll around in mud and muck which is made up largely of their own leavings, and God forbid the eating of them to keep his people spiritually removed from rolling around in grossness. But the Pharisees took these laws and rejected the spiritual purpose and only believed that something magical in these animals could keep them out of Heaven, so they were very careful in what they ate and touched and that they would wash their hands before they ate clean things just in case they touched something unclean.

In essence they were missing the point COMPLETELY. Jesus comes along to straighten them out and return them to the original meaning of the law, which was and is to point to God's holiness and separateness from sin.

Jesus asks, "Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled?"

What do you think the heart is here that we're talking about? Is it literally the 10 ounce spongy pump in our chest that pumps 74 gallons of blood through it every hour? That's not what Christ is talking about, he's talking about the core of a person and who they are and what they desire. It's strange from a non-spiritual standpoint to consider that we feel emotions in different parts of our bodies, for example, we get nervous and get butterflies in our stomachs, or we are worried and feel like our belly is tied up in knots, and even though our brain is actually the center of our intellect, we feel like our person is in the center of our body. I'm sure God did this on purpose for a lot of reasons, making us realize we're more than a machine and showing naturalists that they can't describe us just as a collection of parts. We're not a body with a soul, we're a soul with a body. When this body wears out and dies, we will continue on, eventually (and we don't have time to talk about this now, but will in the future) receive a new body, one that will never die.

The Bible says amazingly direct and harsh things about our heart:

Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."

And in that, we have a problem, because many places in the Bible, like Psalm 24, quoted in Matthew 5, says that causes a problem between us and God,

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

If we don't have a pure heart, what then is the extension? We won't see God.

Check out what Jesus continued to say in Mark 7, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

Let's look at some of these things that defile us, how about theft? Earlier we looked at the 5th Commandment, this is another Commandment, does anyone know which one theft is breaking? The 8th. Have you ever stolen anything? Does that make you a theif?

How about murder? That's the 6th Commandment, and here Jesus says it starts in the heart. That is a running theme in the Bible that our sins aren't sins once they are committed, they are sins in the seedling form. What is murder an expression of? Hatred, and its seed is hating someone.

Matthew 5:21-22 You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.

Wow, have you ever hated someone or called them a fool or a curse word? Speaking of curse words, in another place Jesus was preaching on a very similar topic, but there he added a very specific judgment of our hearts,

Matthew 15:18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

What we say has a direct representation of what our heart looks like, so if we say curse words, what does that say about our heart? It's cursed. We're going to be talking a lot more about that when we get to Zechariah in a few weeks.

The next one is adultery, and we can lump in with it sexual immorality. What is adultery? It's when you sleep with someone who isn't your spouse. Being as none of you have spouses, you may think it's impossible to break this one, but look at what Jesus said,

Matthew 5:27-28 You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

I hope you're seeing that our hearts are in pretty bad shape, add to these things that defile our heart, coveting, desiring something that doesn't belong you, wickedness, forsaking good and doing something bad, deceit, stealing something through words not just through action, sensuality, doing something just because you want to and not because you've thought it through, envy, wishing you were someone other than who God created you as, slander, speaking evil against someone else, pride, thinking you're someone great when we see here that we're all sinners, and foolishness, or not wanting to learn, basically as we can see in many other places in the Bible, rejecting knowledge of God.

So do we agree that we don't have pure hearts? What then is the consequence? We won't see God, is the big one. Besides that, we see amazing promises from God, let's look briefly at the 5th Commandment,

Proverbs 20:20 If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

How about the 10th Commandment on coveting and 7th on adultery,

Ephesians 5:5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Finally, one that isn't named here, but the 9th Commandment says thou shalt not lie. How many lies do you have to tell to be called a liar? Just one. How many lies have you told? Revelation 21:8 says that all liars will have their place in the Lake which burns with sulfur and brimstone, which is the second death.

God isn't playing around with the necessity of a pure heart, and yet we don't have one, so are we without hope? Left alone to our own efforts of cleaning our heart by washing our hands we would be without hope, but thanks be to God that he sent us a Saviour able to give us a new heart and wash us spiritually.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We've got some big concepts here, so let's look at them. First of all we need to know how this happened. Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh, God the Son, stepped out of Heaven and put on flesh. He was tempted in every way we've been tempted, yet without sin, his heart was perfectly pure and he proved it by facing every opportunity to sin and doing right every time. But, because we would die without hope if something major didn't happen, Jesus Christ willingly took our sin on and in himself and bore it to the cross where his Father poured out the full consequence of sin on our sinless Saviour, Jesus Christ bore the hatred we deserved. Then three days later he defeated death and is able to save us from every sin we've committed, from the consequences of those sins, from having an evil and wicked heart (we'll talk much more about this next week), and from being separated from God. What he commands to have all that done is that we place our full trust in him and him alone that his character and payment was sufficient to redeem us from sin. This faith will bring with it repentance, a turning from sin and a hatred of evil, seeking to do right and love God above ourselves.

Ephesians 2:12-13 Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Then we can say such were we, great sinners, but that's who we were. Now we are washed, which is obviously not talking about our hands, but our whole person. When Jesus was washing his disciples feet Peter didn't want to partake because he felt it was demeaning to Jesus, but Jesus said unless I wash you, you will have no part in my kingdom! Peter was quick to say, "Not then just my feet, but my hands and head!" We see that Jesus washes our whole person.

Now we are sanctified, that is continually being changed to be more like Jesus Christ, knowing good from evil and choosing the good. This word sounds a lot like "saint", doesn't it? That's because they share the same root word. Everyone who is a Christian is a saint, being sanctified. If you're not being changed, then you sincerely ought to doubt if you are a saint, and you must make your salvation sure.

Finally, we've got this cool word, "Justified", which is a legal word to say that we are innocent. Are we really innocent of sin? No, we were and are great sinners, of whom I am chief, but Jesus Christ became guilty in our place, so we receive his innocence. We look forward in Heaven to our glorification when we will be unable to ever sin again.

Finally we see how this happened, in the name, or character, of Jesus Christ, and accomplished by the Spirit of our God.

July 12th - Hope

Prayer Requests
Vacation Bible School
Sarah and Tyler Going to China
Pastor Aaron Preaching

Text – 2 Thessalonians 1:3

We’re going to spend an entire lesson today on a word that is not there. We’ve already looked at this verse, twice, actually, but something flew out at me while preparing that we HAVE to look at, because it sums up the WHOLE letter of 2 Thessalonians, and it’s a missing word.

Let’s see if you can see it,

2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

What’s missing? Let’s look at First Thessalonians and First Corinthians;

1 Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Faith, _______, and Love. These three are a unit, they’re a trinity of good things; a three legged stool, remove one and the other two fall.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. If we lose hope, we lose faith, if we lose faith, we lose our justification, if we lose our justification, we lose everything. Have any of you ever heard of anybody being someone afraid of Hebrews 6 and what it seems to say? Hebrews 6 sounds like you might be able to lose your salvation, if you read it wrongly; but of course that is not true, for we trust in the perseverance of the saints, that he who began a good work in you will see it to completion on the Day of Christ.

Hebrews 6 is about how vital hope is to our salvation, and beloved, if we are without hope, then we are without salvation. Hebrews 6 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, because I’m not afraid of it because I know that the author could not possibly be saying that we can lose our salvation, so we see what this passage is trying to teach us.

It’s strange all of the sudden that we’re in Hebrews 6, but it’s so vital for hope, and because of what it says is why Thessalonica was without hope. It begins by instructing teachers not to spend all of their time on salvation. It is wonderful to preach repentance, faith in Christ, the resurrection, eternal judgment; but there is SOOOOOOO much more to the faith. It says that if you’re saved, that you can’t be resaved, so what is the point of then spending all of your time trying to get saints saved. We have a much better hope and infinitely better inheritance in front of us than just being saved.

Don’t get me wrong, salvation is awesome, it is huge, it is worth talking about, but Hebrews 6 says don’t fixate on one thing while ignoring the full richness of our inheritance in Christ.

Hebrews 6:11-12 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

I earnestly desire to see in each of you the full assurance of the hope we have, so that you might serve the church in love, that this faith and patience will lead to the full inheritance of all of the promises that are available in Christ, not just the salvation.

Hebrews 6:18-20 It is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hope is huge. Where does it come from?

Ephesians 2:12-13 Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

We were without hope without God, but through Jesus Christ shedding his blood, purchasing us in his ransom, we have a full assurance of hope in him.

Hebrews 3:6 Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Hope does not disappoint.

Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Wouldn’t it be a little weird if I said, “I hope [student in class] comes to class today.” Of course it would be weird, because they’re here, I don’t hope because I see, I know, there is no patience required.

On the other hand, would it be weird if I said, “I hope [regular attender not present] comes to class today.” No, because there is a chance of that happening, but my hope is not perfect.

How about, “I hope Pastor Aaron comes to class today.” This is not really hope, because we know he is preaching right now and has made no obligation to come, and so while it would be nice if he’d stop in and say hi, this hope is small.

On the other hand, if before class I said, “I hope [student in class] comes to class today.” And I had talked to that student and he/she told me they were coming, because I trust them, and their parents, my hope was well founded and I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he/she came into class.

Hebrews 10:19-23 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

When Jesus Christ makes a promise, beloved, you’d better believe it is binding. He has promised to return, to gather his saints to him, to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before his Father. It is a big hope, and Thessalonica didn’t have it, and it wrecked their lives.

Jenny asked why they believed the false letter that said they had missed the rapture. I had to think about it a lot, and I think I have the answer. They were trusting in men rather than God, and Satan has many tricksters, tricks, and schemes to damage the faith of the believer and blind the eyes of the unbeliever.

My guess, and this is largely conjecture, but is founded on verses and also on past experiences, is that Thessalonica was trusting more in men than God. For example, I felt awful after our lesson on dating/purity when I said I wasn’t dating or even kissing another girl until I was pretty sure she was the one I was going to marry, then I went and dated a girl who I realized probably there was no future with, but because of circumstances I skipped some important steps. Beloved, I will do my best to be faithful, honest, and true, but I guarantee I will let you down again as I have in the past; so trust in Jesus, who will never let you down.

So why did Thessalonica trust the letter that was supposedly from Paul that said they’d missed the rapture, even when it was directly contradictory with his first letter, which said that saints would be caught up to meet Christ in the air when he returned?

First hint:

2 Thessalonians 3:2 [Pray] that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.

Second hint:

Romans 16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae.

Third hint:

Ephesians 6:21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.

The person that carried a letter was an emissary, an ambassador, a representative of the one who wrote the letter. It was a very important position to deliver a letter, and one that required a high level of trust. Not everybody Paul ever ministered with ended up being completely perfect in their theology, we see this Mark abandoning them, Barnabas temporarily falling in with the works-righteous crowd, Timothy starting out in the circumcision-party, and the fourth hint as to why the church at Thessalonica believed the letter;

2 Timothy 4:10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Demas had ministered with Paul for at least two years, and yet he ended up being a false convert. Could there have been a Judas in the mix of Paul’s disciples who delivered a false letter under the guise of being a real disciple? Quite possibly, Demas may have even been the one who delivered both letters to Thessalonica, albeit that is a pretty wild leap.

However it happened, I would bet you that the same person delivered the fake letter as the first letter, and so the church accepted it as being from Paul.

There is a powerful application in this, that me, and your other teachers/preachers who may faithfully bring you the word still shouldn’t be trusted above God. I may preach a rock-solid message one week, then next week I may tell you that in order to go to Heaven, you have to give me $100. The false message doesn’t make the true message false, but the true message also doesn’t make the false message true. Don’t let your guard down, and make sure your hope is in Christ alone.



I was preaching at the Superbowl and had a particularly gifted heckler. He really got me off track and I lost my place in my sermon. I had gotten through that you need to be perfect to go to Heaven, and taken them through some of God’s law to show them they stood condemned before God. At this point, they were without hope. A Christian chimed in from the crowd to get me back on track, he asked, “So you’re telling us we’re without hope?!?!”

It was one of my favorite times open air preaching, my response: “Hope? Hope! O blessed hope; there is hope! When we were without hope, without God in the world, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Christ paid our fine on the cross, God manifest in the flesh died for us and defeated death! We can be reconciled to him if we will repent and trust in Jesus Christ, that his payment on Calvary’s cross was entirely sufficient to pay our way into Heaven! I implore you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be reconciled to God! That’s hope!"

One of Dave’s favorite songs is My Hope is Built on Nothing Less by Edward Mote. Two verses of it go,

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteous;
No merit of my own I claim
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, his covenant, his blood
Sustain me in the raging flood;
When all supports are washed away,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.



When Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, where was his hope and trust? In God and the resurrection. The same with Christ, his hope and trust was in the unfailing promise of God of the resurrection to come. When Thessalonica lost this hope, they lost everything, even their hope and joy in temporal things.

When you would go to Jerusalem on Mt. Zion in the days of David all the way through Christ, you’d have to walk well trodden paths that went through such wonderful sounding places as the “Valley of Death” and other such dangerous and wicked places. Pagans in the area knew that Jews would be making these pilgrimages at certain times, and would set-up for business, selling food, wares, and gods along the path, usually on the hills so that they could be seen. A song that David wrote was specifically designed to be sung when these things were encountered,

Psalm 121:1-2 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

We see this today in many ways; think about Christmas, what are we supposed to be celebrating on Christmas? The birth of Jesus Christ; what do the pagans want us to celebrate? Stuff. On Easter, what should we be celebrating? The resurrection of Jesus Christ; what do the pagan want us to do? Look for eggs.

I lift my eyes unto the stores, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of all this stuff.

2 Corinthians 1:7-10 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Set your hope on Christ, on his death and resurrection. He is your help and shield, your life and righteousness. He is faithful, he is worthy of your faith and hope, hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into us through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

1 John 2:28-3:3 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Benediction: Now, may the God of hope grant you all joy and peace in believing, that through the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)