God's Warning To Us
Hebrews 12:14-29 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
1 Peter 1:15-16 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 2:9-12 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Since I had to end the last one early let’s pick up from where we left off. We were talking about the fact that we are commanded to be holy. This is yet another way the Lord commands us to be set apart from the unsaved people in this world. I know that we have discussed being set apart for the Lord several times in the past so I won’t go into it in detail here, although if you have questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. Let’s just remember the basics of being set apart before we go further.
God has a number of reasons for telling us that He wants us to be separate from the unsaved people in the world just as He did for telling the Jew’s that He wanted them to be separate from the rest of the world. One reason is so that we won’t be contaminated by their sins, attitudes and beliefs. Unsaved people have a secular worldview, not a biblical one. For example they may believe in evolution rather then that God created the world. That may not sound like a big deal but if you did a study on the difference and how it affects us, you would be amazed at just how much it does! Regardless of that though, a secular worldview is devoid of absolute Truth. To the world truth is whatever you make it to be.
We know better than that though. We know there really is absolute Truth, and absolute right and wrong. We know there really is such a thing as evil, and Satan and demons. We know that we have a sin nature as does everyone else and we know that we are not worthy of being called by God or being saved by Him. We know too though that He saves us anyway because of His love and grace. For the unbelievers though, they don’t think they are sinful. They don’t understand when we talk about how badly we feel when we sin. At the very best they might think of a sin as a simple “mistake” but it’s certainly no big deal to them. They consider themselves “good” and cannot understand that no matter how “good” they are that compared to the pure goodness and holiness of our God, they would be filthy! The Lord doesn’t want us to be contaminated by these views. He wants us to be separate so that we can learn and apply His Truth and live by it without being contaminated by the world. He knows that when you give Satan an inch, he will take a mile and when we are not separated from the unsaved we are giving Satan that inch.
To be holy then, the Lord tells us we must be separate from the world, separate from the unsaved people of the world. He even tells us that we are to avoid those who have been born again but are not living their faith as well as those who are false teachers. He tells us this for the same reason, He doesn’t want us contaminated by them. He wants us to be like Him.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
More then that, He commands us to be like Him.
Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
It’s easy to see from all of this that the Lord’s warning to us throughout scripture is to fear Him, accept His gift of salvation, set ourselves apart from the rest of the world, walk in faith and be holy as He is. The world walks by sight, but we must walk by faith. The next portion of Hebrews discusses this.
Hebrews 11:1-3 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.This is what the ancients were commended for.By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
First the author explains to us what faith is. I’m sure we’re all very familiar with that verse, but let’s look at it closely anyway. Faith is being sure of what we hope for. What exactly is it that we hope for anyway? Do we “hope” for salvation? NO! We are already saved so we don’t need to hope for that. What we hope for, what we are waiting for is the redemption of our bodies; for our salvation to be complete. That will happen at the rapture and that is what the following verses as well as many others explain. We are told then that we are to be certain of what we don’t see. He wants us to be sure of what we hope for, to be sure of the rapture and more then “just the rapture” but to be certain that we understand that when the rapture takes place, we will receive our new bodies (this is sometimes referred to as the redemption of our bodies) and our salvation will be complete. We cannot see these things with out eyes now, so He tells us to be certain of what we can’t see, just as the world erroneously is often certain of what they can see. We are to have faith that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us to save us and give us new bodies free from the stain of sin, to match what He has already given us, our new spirits or natures, which we received the moment we became saved.
Romans 8:23-25 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Remember that verse that says that the Lord has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit to guarantee what is coming? This is what the Holy Spirit is guaranteeing. He is our guarantee that our salvation will be completed by our receiving our new bodies (called the redemption of our bodies) at the rapture.
Ephesians 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Now there is only one way we can have that faith, that we can be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see—the only way is through constant study of His Word and prayer! There are no short cuts. I know you’re probably sick and tired of hearing me say this, but it is probably one of the most important things that the Lord asks of us. If we do not do this, we cannot become mature; we cannot be sure or certain of anything and we cannot please Him. The more I study this, the more convinced I become that the doctrine of the rapture, in particularly the pre-trib rapture is a vital part of the main Gospel message and that understanding it is vital for understanding our salvation and all of God's Word. I am becoming convinced that the rapture doctrine is part of what Paul was speaking of when he said that if anyone taught a different gospel or different Jesus that they were cursed. Once again I’ve managed to make this much longer then I intended so we’ll have to work on the rest of this tomorrow.
