Hebrews 12                                                                                     

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

• A cloud of witnesses are groups of people that know the truth. Like a cloud of locusts

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

• Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Revealtion
• Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
• The millennium Temple in Ezekiel 48:35 It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.
• The word ''new'' in Greek is ''kinnos'', which means ''freshness or renew''.
• It is not a completely new operation, but a renewing of the old.
• The word rejuvenation would be more fitting.
• The fact that there will be no more sea can mean two things.
• We know that if all the people who had ever lived were to return, there would not be adequate living space.
• However, if the seas disappeared and we had terra firma around the whole globe, there would be.
• The earth would be watered with a mist that covered the whole earth.
• It would be watered each night, evenly, in such a way that we would not have rain or storms.
• We could also interpret this sea to mean that masses of confused people would be ''no more''.
• Refers to Isaiah 65, New Heavens and earth
Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
• This is post millennium.
• Note, this is not old Jerusalem as we know it now. But the heavenly Jerusalem. For He brings it with Him.
• Heaven in Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

• Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven
• Roman 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
• The first fruits, or the elect.
• What Paul is saying here is, that even the elect as we are placed in this flesh body to accomplish the plan of God.
• And bring about His purpose, even we look forward to this day when we will be removed from this dispensation.
• And released from the political system which is the (first beast) mentioned in Revelation 13.

24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

• That is to say, who finished the race.

26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

• God does the shaking not man
• 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
  11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
  12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
  13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
• Verse 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
• This fire can be to cleanse out all evil or the fire of the Holy Spirit to warm your heart
• A thief in the night means you're in darkness. There's no light in you, meaning no truth of God's word
• Meaning you haven't studied God's word.
• Light is truth John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
• John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
• Luke 11:35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
• Satan is darkness = at this time the prince of this earth age. Don't do as the ways of this earth age.
• John 11:10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
• Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
• Ezekiel 21:26 Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.
  27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
  28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
  29 Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.
• Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

• We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved
• Which cannot be moved = immovable
• Acts 27:41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.

29 For our God is a consuming fire.

• Consuming fire NT:355 from NT:303 and a form of the alternate of NT:138; properly, to use up, destroy: KJV - consume.
• Fire = to cleanse out all evil
• Fire = Holy Spirit to warm your heart
• Which side do you want to be on? God's going to be there for those that love Him.
• 1 Samuel 8:18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
• Psalms 37: 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.
  18 The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.
  19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
  20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
• What happened to smoke?
• Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
  21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
• Deut 4:24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
  25 When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger:
• 2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
  9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
  10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

 

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

 

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25