Angelic Conflict part 142: Human history – Heb 3-4; Pro 17:27-28; 2Co 11:13-15; Act 20:28-35.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 142: Human history - Heb 3-4; PRO 17:27-28; 2CO 11:13-15; ACT 20:28-35.

 

Once again:

HEB 3:7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says [divine inspiration of OT],

"Today if you hear His voice,

 

The rebellion of the exodus is as pertinent today as it was then. What is most important today is if you will hear His voice through the intake of doctrine.

 

HEB 3:8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

 

For those to whom this letter is written, they have about 2-3 years to recover and get out of Jerusalem before it is too late.

 

HEB 3:9 Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years.

 

This reveals the progressive nature of their thinking. They are extreme liberals in that they reject absolute authority and you can’t do that without rejecting the one and only truth and accepting untruth and then justifying yourself by stating that there is no truth. It begins in the spiritual life and then reveals itself in political life in terms of rebellion and revolution. The people want their idols and not divine law, they fail spiritually, and then they plot revolution against Moses to stone him, so then they fail politically.

 

And so Satan gets what he desired - chaos in the midst of God’s people and God’s nation so that the people will beg for security over freedom.

 

No creature has the right to put his Creator to the test.

 

HEB 3:10 "Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart; And they did not know My ways';

 

 “go astray” - plana,w[planao] = to wander away; to be deceived or seduced into straying from the course.

 

And they do not know My ways…? What ways? So simple, yet they were so completely disinterested.

 

HEB 3:11 As I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'"

 

The tremendous blessings of a land flowing with milk and honey (an idiom for prosperity) demands a people with a certain capacity for that.

 

To be blessed with something you have no capacity for is not to be blessed at all, but cursed.

 

That generation rejected capacity and therefore rejected blessing from God and so they could not enter.

 

“I swore” - solemn oath - “those without capacity shall never enter my rest and feel my wrath.”

 

God naturally gives us time to enter that rest. 40 years wasn’t enough time for this group and another year or another hundred years wouldn’t have mattered.

 

HEB 3:12 Take care [beware], brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away [revolting] from the living God.

 

“Beware” reveals just how dangerous and hurtful it is to revolt against God in your soul. Such an attitude is not to be taken lightly.

 

HEB 3:13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

 

Encouragement comes from spiritual growth. With maturity you will have the fruit of the Spirit and any other believer who witnesses that fruit will be encouraged to keep pressing on. Certainly words of encouragement are in view, but words are empty if there is no life to back them up.

 

You never know what tests people are going through. Love gives them the benefit of the doubt. Don’t become a people test to another believer who is under the tests from God or temptation from satan by saying or doing something to them that is immature. If in doubt it is better to keep your mouth shut and do nothing.

 

PRO 17:27-28

He who restrains his words has knowledge,

And he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise;

When he closes his lips, he is counted prudent.

 

When the fool opens hisher mouth, all doubt is removed.

 

In these are encouragements, so examine them and think to yourself, in what way do they apply to others, especially others who are going through testing?

 

GAL 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

 

The fact that you can forgive another and do not judge or malign them is encouragement. Operating in divine love, being patient, peaceful, kind, good, gentle and faithful all become a great source of encouragement to others and they are supernatural and self-existing for they are God’s and do not depend on anyone or anything.

 

HEB 3:12 Take care [beware], brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away [revolting] from the living God.

 

HEB 3:13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

 

HEB 3:14 For we have become partakers [partners] of Christ, if we hold fast [katecho] the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;

 

Verse 14 is not position but experience. The inference here is a mature partner in a business like venture as were the fishermen of Luk 5.

 

In religion there is a hierarchy and some are elevated above others and claim more of a partnership with Christ than others as the Pharisees and Saducees claimed to be closer to God than all in Israel. They claimed this and manipulated their positions in order to maintain power and wealth. They only cared for earthly things and did not know God though they were more educated in knowledge than the common Jew.

 

Satan has used such self-serving people in his propaganda schemes since the beginning and there are many such wolves in sheep’s clothing in the Church.

 

2CO 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

 

2CO 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

 

2CO 11:15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.

 

Deception is one of satan’s main tactics in the invisible war.

 

At a pastor’s conference just outside of Ephesus:

 

ACT 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd [pastor] the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

 

ACT 20:29 "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;

 

ACT 20:30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

 

ACT 20:31 "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.

 

ACT 20:32 "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

 

ACT 20:33 "I have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes.

 

ACT 20:34 "You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me.

 

ACT 20:35 "In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

 

There is an authority structure in any church, but that is for the purpose of functioning in an orderly fashion when communicating doctrine.

 

Partners imply EPEO as believer priests and not some religious, businesslike, church hierarchy. All believers are royal priests and can choose to take full advantage of their priesthood.

 

Religious hierarchies would render to Caesar what belongs to God.

 

A priest, no matter what his spiritual gift, represents himself before God and has the right of relationship with God, which right is a privilege and opportunity that no CA believer has more of or less of than another as well as the unlimited freedom to exploit it.

 

No spiritual gift is greater than another. All are used for the common good in the body of Christ.

 

HEB 3:12 Take care [beware], brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away [revolting] from the living God.

 

HEB 3:13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

 

HEB 3:14 For we have become partakers [partners] of Christ, if we hold fast [katecho] the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;

 

The same verb is used as in verse 6 - to hold fast or to secure possession of or to have in full:

 

HEB 3:6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end [faithful son as opposed to unfaithful].

 

Verse 6: “hold fast confidence” - parrhesia = all outspokenness.

Verse 14: “hold fast assurance” - hupostasis = stand under.