Inquiring Minds… As We See the Day Drawing Near

Part 2

Tim Moore: So, how about it, Nathan? Let’s jump right in and let’s do something different. Let’s read this entire passage from Hebrews 10.

Nathan Jones: Okay. Hebrews 10:19-25: Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having 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. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Tim Moore: All right, so as we jump into this beautiful passage, and this is my favorite passage out of the Book of Hebrews, as you’ll soon realize, and I get very excited about it. But before we get to the encouragement, which is really the focus of today, let’s start back at the beginning of this passage. And since it opens with a therefore, let’s do what one of my professors said and let’s find out what the therefore is…there for. What is it referring to in the previous section of this particular chapter?

Nathan Jones: Well, chapter eight, verse one, summed up, Paul’s statement is, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Again, there’s another therefore. So, we see these therefores, and you have to back it up to another therefore to eventually get to the source.

Tim Moore: Yeah, so that whole passage here in Hebrews 10 really is summing up what Paul conveys in Romans. And it makes an airtight case that the law, which was handed down, let’s face it, the writer here is addressing Hebrews. This is a letter written to Jewish believers in particular, and he makes the case that is unmistakable that the law and the sacrificial system was inadequate to truly cleanse us from sin.

Only by accepting or believing in the perfect sacrifice offered by Christ Himself, that was Christ Himself, can we be declared sinless. And that’s exactly what is said in verse 17. “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” And so, that was a prophetic passage from the past fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

Nathan Jones: And that was so important for the Jewish people to understand because in the early church days, when the Church was still mostly Jewish, before the Gentiles started joining, the Jewish people were confused about whether they should leave the sacrificial Mosaic law behind. Is salvation through Christ Jesus with works from the Old Testament, or without?

And so, they held a council, the Jerusalem council. They discussed this and they realized through the teachings of Jesus Christ and then through the apostles, that the Old Testament sacrificial system was merely a temporary covering. In other words, when we sinned against God, we brought the just penalty of eternal death upon ourselves. So, the Lord allowed that an animal would take their place for a certain amount of time.

And so, over the years, millions and millions of animals were killed so that the people could be temporarily covered by the blood of those animals, waiting for the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ. So, when Jesus came and became the ultimate sacrifice, there was no need for the sacrificial system anymore. And that’s a case that Paul’s trying to make, here, is you don’t need to have Jesus plus works. It’s just the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Tim Moore: It’s just the work of Jesus Christ. And so, we can recognize, even as we review what is written here in the Book of Hebrews that we are encouraged because not only are we saved from the wrath of God, but we are saved into a relationship with God, a relationship that was breached in the garden itself. The Lord God, Jesus Christ, as we’ve discussed, used to walk in the garden in the cool of the morning, having communion or fellowship with man and woman, until that relationship was breached.

And so, now, through the sacrifice, the ultimate perfect sacrifice of Christ, we can be brought back into that relationship. And that’s why any other means of salvation is like saying, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace. Only Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life, the Prince of Peace.

Nathan Jones: All of human history is God’s plan of redemption. Like you said, Adam and Eve, they walked and talked and had perfect fellowship with God. And when sin entered, that relationship was broken and death came upon mankind. And the sentence that was supposed to be for the angels alone, Hell, came upon mankind as well. And so, the Lord provided the sacrificial system for a temporary covering until the Messiah was sacrificed and became the ultimate sacrifice.

And then, He’s going to reveal more of Himself when Jesus returns and rules from Jerusalem. We will actually get to see the Messiah face to face. And then, after the Millennial Kingdom, we get to the eternal state where everybody in Heaven is a believer in Jesus Christ. They’re all saved, and that perfect relationship has been restored to the Garden of Eden, a full circle. And so, we have to leave these old covenants that have expired, like the Mosaic law, behind.

Now, certain promises to the Jews, like through the Abrahamic covenant and the land covenants will be given to the Jewish people. But what we’re saying is, when it comes to salvation, as the Lord reveals more and more of Himself, we will get to the Millennial Kingdom and the Church Age requirements will disappear, and it’ll be different. So, it’s all bringing us back to that perfect relationship.

Tim Moore: It’s all bringing us back to relationship. We know that the ceremonial laws have been succeeded, if you will, by Christ. The moral law, that still applies. But the point that the author is making here is that we can draw near to the Lord. In verse 21, it talks about Jesus Christ being our High Priest over the House of God. We know from other passages that the Jew first, and also the Gentile. So, we have been grafted into this House of God and Jesus serves as our great High Priest.

Then, in verse 22, “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of him, having our heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed clean with pure water.” Some people, even today, Nathan, I find, tend to cower in the shadows. They’re plagued by fear or their own insecurities. And that’s not what God would have any child in his household do.

I don’t want my children cowering from me in fear. I want them to have a righteous respect but not hide from me whenever I come into the room. And so, the Lord wants us to have this relationship. And yet, Satan is constantly whispering, “You’re not worthy, you’re not worthy,” and trying to discourage us from being in that full, loving relationship.

Nathan Jones: And that’s where I think a lot of Christians fall into this works-based salvation, or if you’re Jewish and you fall into the Hebrew Roots movement. I know a lot of people get Lamb & Lion Ministries confused with Lion & Lamb Ministries, which is a Hebrew Roots teaching movement. It is the Gospel plus works from the Old Testament. And that’s, again, not what the Bible’s teaching at all.

Christians, likewise Gentiles, can fall under the same thing. “Well, we’re not worthy, so we must prove ourselves to God by doing a certain amount of works.” And usually, what the result will be is they become legalistic. They create the laws and boundaries they expect everybody else to follow. And we don’t understand the grace of God, that there’s nothing we can do in order to be saved. Jesus did it all on the cross. And when we put our faith and trust in Him, His work on the cross saves us, nothing we can do.

Tim Moore: I think a perfect picture of that contained in some prophetic verses is the contrast between what happens when Isaiah is ushered into the Throne Room of God in Isaiah 6. He is lifted up. He sees the Lord high and lifted up. And Isaiah’s response is to say, “Woe is me! I’m a man of unclean lips. I come from a people of unclean lips.” He immediately feels his unworthiness of even being in the presence of God Almighty.

And yet, John the Apostle in Revelation 4, when he is raptured into the Throne Room of God, he doesn’t have that same response. He’s in awe. He falls down at one point, just overwhelmed. But he doesn’t cry out, “I’m unworthy and I am a man of unclean lips.” Why? Because on this side of the cross, his sins had been covered. The sacrifice had already been made. So, John did not feel that sense of unworthiness that Isaiah did.

Nathan Jones: You know, the Old Testament, they had the Temple and the Holy of Holies. A priest could only go in once a year and give the offering, and they tied a rope around his leg. If God found him unworthy, he was struck down and they had to drag the body out. You couldn’t go into the presence of God. But we can go into the presence of God.

Tim Moore: Absolutely.

Nathan Jones: And that’s why I always wondered if, let’s say we could get into our own DeLorean and time travel-back to the Old Testament, could we walk into the Holy of Holies without fear of death? I think so. Now, it’s a different time period. We’d want to be respectful to the people in the Temple. But there would be no fear. We can stand before the Father holy and pure because the blood of Jesus Christ has washed us from our sins. I know that sounds Christianese, but it’s the truth.

Tim Moore: It is the truth. So, in contrast with a great sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God that is meant to create great fear of the wrath of God, we’re told right here that we should have no fear. We should draw near with a sincere heart because we have been washed clean. But yet, we see over and over again, Nathan, throughout Scripture, an admonition that we should be careful not to fall, not to go astray. And so, we should hold fast, should abide in our faith and not stray off like lost sheep wandering away from our shepherd.

Again and again in John through his epistles, I can read from John 1:3-4 when he talks to his little children, abide with fellowship with the Lord. In 1 John 5:13, he says, again, “I’ve written to you so that you may believe and so that you may know you have eternal life.” John 1, 2, on and on, we are told to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, the same words that are uttered right here. “Do not waver, do not wander as sheep.”

Nathan Jones: Yeah, 1 John 2:27-28, like you said, “Abide in the Lord.” He says the same thing in 2 John 1:8-9. “And while we abide in the Lord,” 3 John 1:11, “We do good. We keep from idolatry.” This is important because we could get into the argument of eternal security, and that’s an argument that’s been battered around for the last 2,000 years. I think the Lord gives us enough verses to make an argument for eternal security, which I hold. I believe we are His sheep and nothing can pull us out of His hands.

Other ministers, men of God, will argue you can lose salvation through falling into heresy and apostasy, and they have good verses that back it up, too. But I think John, here, gives us the answer. If we abide in him, then there’s no worry about eternal security. Obviously, if you go fully, “I hate God,” and you go through that atheist anti-baptism to get rid of the Holy Spirit thing, you’ve got a problem. You’re not abiding in God. You should fear for your salvation. But I think if we just abide, we never have to worry. We have eternal security.

Tim Moore: We certainly do. Jude in his letter wanted to write, as he says in verse three, about our common salvation. But even to his readers in that day and age, he felt the need to write that they would contend earnestly for the faith. And so, there’s this idea, I’ve used the analogy twice already, that we are sheep. And what are sheep prone to do? They’re prone to wander around. They’re not very bright animals, my shepherd friends tell me, and they wander away, and the shepherd has to go looking for them.

So, I don’t think anything can take us from the Shepherd. He guards His flock. But as sheep, we need to focus on the Shepherd. We need to essentially guard our hearts. And the reason that we can be faithful is because He is faithful. We’re not left to our own devices or even dependent upon our own strength or giftedness or faith. It’s like the father who said to Jesus, “I do believe, but help me my unbelief.” If we just will have that micro seed of faith…

Nathan Jones: A mustard seed.

Tim Moore: A mustard seed, then the Lord will assure that we sink our roots deep into Him. So, abide in Him, and He will abide in us.

Nathan Jones: And He seals us with His Holy Spirit.

Tim Moore: Yes, He does.

Nathan Jones: We can wander off, obviously. It’s really comforting to me to read the seven churches of Revelation. Because you’ve got legalistic churches, you’ve got pagan churches, you’ve got apostate church, you even have a dead church. And yet, the Lord walks among the lampstands, He holds their stars, their angels, or pastors in His hands, and He calls them His sheep. So, even if we do fall into doctrinal heresy, something as terrible as that, there’s still, if we are a child of God, we are His sheep, we are sealed by His blood. The Holy Spirit resides in us as the down payment on our future glorification. And so, we are saved, and that should bring us great encouragement.

Matter of fact, one of the ways that we minister to Muslims, is Muslims think they could, it’s a works-based salvation. They could lose it any minute.

Tim Moore: I know.

Nathan Jones: And so, but with Christianity, we have eternal security because Jesus Christ paid for it with His blood and He sealed it with the Holy Spirit.

Tim Moore: He certainly did, so that, you used the word encouragement. Let’s get to the portion of this passage that we’ve been driving toward.

Nathan Jones: All right, yes, let’s.

Tim Moore: And that is actually the encouragement that we are offered. And the author says that our encouragement should be increased as we see the day drawing near. And so, this presumes that we as followers of Christ will see, in other words, we’ll recognize, we’ll realize and we’ll discern, that the day is drawing near.

Nathan, that’s been our message for 45 years, that followers of Christ should realize we are close. We are in the season of His return, but that day is growing closer and closer. And we know that the author is referring to that day because in verse 27, he refers to the day of judgment. And so, the clear implication of Scripture, here and elsewhere, is that there will be signs pointing to the coming of the Lord. And as we see those signs multiplying in frequency and in intensity, we know that Jesus is near. He’s coming very, very soon.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, so we’ve been cleansed by the blood of Christ. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. But also, part of verse 25, there, Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.” This is important because as we get near the End Times, and one of the number one signs the Lord gives the End Times was false doctrine, false teachers. We’re being drowned in false teachings, lies, misinformation. What’s it Trump used to always call it, fake news?

Tim Moore: Fake news.

Nathan Jones: We’re drowning in fake news, so what does he say? “Assemble with other believers so that you can be held accountable and study the Bible together and serve together,” especially in these end times. Tim, there are so many Christians out there going it alone who think they want to be lone wolf Christians.

Tim Moore: Lone sheep, if you will.

Nathan Jones: And they’re very proud of it, unfortunately. And some, we get people from countries that say, “Hey, I’m the only Christian in a 50-mile radius.” Join a group online. There’s Christians all over the world. We are commanded to assemble together to support each other and keep evil at bay. And that’s what Paul tells us to do, here.

Tim Moore: And part of that is for the accountability that it provides. If I wander off by myself, who’s going to hold me accountable? Yeah, I know I’m accountable to the Lord, but we need brothers and sisters in Christ who will, day by day, walk with us and sometimes be the voice of the Lord. “Well, the Lord hasn’t spoken to me,” really? Are you listening to your brothers and sisters in Christ who care enough about you to speak truth into your life? And so, we need to be that for others and be open to brothers and sisters in Christ so they can act as guardrails to our own heart.

And let’s face it, even this stimulation of love and good deeds is not merely a warm feeling of empathy or sympathy. It’s not simply words of affirmation or inspiration. It is calling each other to actual love and to actual good deeds.

I thought about a husband who would lay on the couch while his wife’s cleaning up after supper. “Hey, babe, if you need anything, just call.” Well, she’s in there working herself to death and he’s just watching TV. That word of affirmation is meaningless unless he gets up and gets to work helping a spouse. It’s the same philosophy here. We have to be intentional about actually engaging with others to help them and not just spout empty words.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely, and just to clarify it, we don’t know if Paul was the writer of Hebrews. I say Paul because he’s the generally accepted author, but many believe that it wasn’t Paul. But we know from the Book of James that he says, “Faith without works is dead.” He’s not saying that once you’re…that you need works to be saved. He’s saying, once you’re saved, you do good works.

Tim Moore: That’s right.

Nathan Jones: And so, like you said, that husband on the couch better get up and go help his wife. Otherwise, he’s not really showing his affirmation of love.

Tim Moore: No, as a matter of fact, I think, too often, some people engage in love that I call social media love. They post cute sayings or pithy sayings and they think that’s demonstrating love. No, real love gets its hands dirty. Real love jumps in with someone else to actually engage in life, not just spouting pithy things on a social media post. That’s not real love. My wife would not be satisfied if I sent her a text saying how much I loved her, but I was oblivious to her true needs of being her helpmate, and vice versa.

Nathan Jones: Virtue signaling is not true virtue.

Tim Moore: No it’s really not.

Nathan Jones: We are very good in this day and age of virtue signaling. Politicians do it all the time. But do they actually live virtuously? The things they champion, are they actually going out and making a difference on? Most likely not. So, yeah, they don’t want us to virtue signal in the Bible.

Tim Moore: They certainly don’t. And this brings up the point that if we are, you said lone wolf, I’ll call it lone sheep Christians, we wander off by ourselves.

Nathan Jones: That’s good, yeah.

Tim Moore: Then, how can I stimulate someone else if I’m by myself? I had a dear friend one time who said, “I don’t even like going to church. I don’t get fed very much.” And my question in response was immediately, “Really? Who did you feed last week? Who did you encourage last week?” “Well, I…” I said, “You don’t go to church just to get encouragement or to get fed. You go to be an encouragement.”

And quite frankly, you find that when you’re an encourager to others, you end up being encouraged yourself. It’s like a mutual warmth that is provided because the Holy Spirit is working through you. So, the writer of Hebrews, whether it’s Paul or someone else, clearly advocates for proactive faith in fellowship with other believers.

And that is the consistent message of Scripture and the unwavering message of Lamb & Lion Ministries. We make it very clear that you need to find a local church. If you say, “I can’t find one,” then start one. Then, create a group of believers, even if it’s online. I promise you, whether you come to our Monday night Bible study and others that we have streaming, there are ways that you can connect with other believers who are seeking, just as you, to follow after the Lord in these days and age.

Nathan Jones: Yeah and look at the emphasis again. “As you see the day approaching.” In other words, hey, we are soldiers in a war. No soldier goes out and fights an army by themselves. They are part of a larger unit that goes out and fights. And I think we forget the spiritual warfare aspect, because it’s not that we’re fighting for other peoples wellbeing. We’re also fighting to keep our own faith. And so, we need to be around other Christians to do that. And that’s hard in this day and age.

But at the same time, there’s also so many venues, like you said, online. We didn’t have that 30 years ago. Now, we can connect with people. I love being an internet evangelist because we have people all over the world that we call them the remnant church who live in areas where the churches are either totally apostate or non-existent. We have Muslims who write and say, if anyone knew that they were talking to us, they’d be killed. They’re looking for spiritual growth and accountability, and they find it through online venues.

And so, I’m glad that Lamb & Lion Ministries has always had a vision to reach people for Jesus Christ through the internet waves, through the airwaves, through the radio waves to connect people who are isolated so they’re part of this assembly and keep them doctrinally sound in these last days.

Tim Moore: Well, we know that there are many, some of you watching today, perhaps, and others we hear from on a regular basis, who feel like you are all alone. Sometimes it’s easy for many of us to feel like Elijah, “I’m the only one left,” at least in my community or within my family.” And yet, you are not alone. We here are partnered with you in serving the Lord, in testifying to His goodness, to His salvation, and to the fact that He’s coming soon.

And frankly, you, many of you are encouragers to us by virtue of your support as Prophecy Partners. So, we hope that you might consider joining us as a Prophecy Partner. We expend a tremendous amount of money, effort, resources, time, all of the staff here, promoting, sharing this message that Jesus is coming soon. But yet, that is not possible without Prophecy Partners and supporters. So, if you have been blessed, we hope that you’ll be an encouragement to some you’ll never meet this side of Heaven by helping us get that glorious message out.

Now, having said that, Nathan, that brings us to a final, and really, a critical point. Where do we get an abundance of courage? In other words, the ability to encourage someone else because it’s just overflowing out of me. How could I possibly encourage another if I’m not full of courage myself?

Nathan Jones: We go to the Holy Spirit. Again, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. There are days, especially when you come in on Mondays, you pray, “Lord, give me courage to get through this week.” “Lord, give me doctrinal soundness so that I might be discerning.” “Lord, help me to be a blessing to other people, because I’m not feeling it.” It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that makes our weak human efforts possible.

Tim Moore: It certainly is, and I will tell you, I think there’s another key understanding if you really drill down on the meaning of the word, or at least the root of the word courage. We think of courage in our culture as being intestinal fortitude or guts. “He had a lot of guts. He rushed into battle against all odds and won the day.” Well, intestinal fortitude doesn’t really get to the heart of what we’re talking about, here. And even in the Latin community, you would think of machismo, a very masculine type of condition where men have great machismo, and therefore, they show great courage. But that’s not what Christian courage comes from.

If you go to the root word of courage, the root word, and I don’t speak much French, but I speak enough to realize that the root word of courage is cuer. And that actually comes from a Latin word originally that was cor, but it was translated into the Old French as cuer, or corage. And therefore, the French word cuer means heart.

Nathan Jones: Interesting.

Tim Moore: Christian courage doesn’t flow from the guts or from the head or from any other part of the anatomy. It is what overflows from our heart. And I dare say it’s not what, it is who.

Nathan Jones: Who, yes.

Tim Moore: “So fills our heart.” You spoke just exactly right. It is the Holy Spirit that fills us with His presence to overflowing so that we can then encourage someone else in a moment of weakness, in a moment of discouragement. And we can come along and, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit just flowing through our heart, be an encouragement to them.

Nathan Jones: And that’s why the Bible compares Christians to the body of Christ. Christ is the head, but we are a different anatomy, you could say appendages or something. But they all work together. They all harmonize together because they’re all doing the work of the brain, the Lord and the Holy Spirit. And so, we need to be encouraged, and again, go to the Holy Spirit to empower us, to unite us, and make us effective.

Tim Moore: Once again, I would go back to an analogy I’ve used from my Air Force days. When an Air Force fighter pilot goes into combat, he never flies alone. There’s always two airplanes, at least, because they can provide mutual support. So, folks, as Christians, we don’t advocate for any lone sheep Christians out there trying to go it alone. We are called to be mutually supportive of one another, to go it together so that we can both receive and give encouragement to one another.

Just know that Nathan and I pray every day before we record Christ in Prophecy, that you would be encouraged by our words, that the Lord would be glorified. And we truly appreciate your prayers on our behalf because we can feel the encouragement that you offer to us.

Closing

Tim Moore: So, there you have it. A reason we can say, in the midst of chaos and rising wickedness, “It’s getting gloriously dark!”

Nathan Jones: And that is not an expression of enthusiasm for the darkness or celebration of violence and sin. It is merely the affirmation that, because the Word of God prophesies that these things will happen in the Last Days, we can be confident that we are living on the cusp of the Rapture and Jesus’s Second Coming.

Tim Moore: Adrian Rogers preached a message by that title back in the 1970s. If he recognized even then that the signs of the times were pointing to Jesus’ soon return, we should be at least as excited and as motivated as he was then. For over 45 years, Lamb & Lion Ministries has been sharing the Good News that Jesus is coming soon. A warning to unbelievers, but tremendous encouragement to those who are longing for His appearing.

Nathan Jones: If you would like to encourage others or share your own anticipation of the Rapture and Jesus’s soon return, we’d invite you to partner with us. Prophecy Partners contribute at least $25 each month. In turn, they receive our acclaimed Lamplighter magazine, regular updates on ministry impact, periodic gifts, and the assurance that they are paying it forward to truly encourage others, and all the more as we see the Day drawing near.

Tim Moore: We simply could not share the message that Jesus is coming soon without the faithful support of our Prophecy Partners. We hear from so many who are indeed motivated to love and good deeds in such a time as this. We pray that you are motivated and genuinely encouraged, because the Day is drawing near! Godspeed!

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God has raised up individuals around the world who share our love of the Lord and look forward to His soon return. These Prophecy Partners pray for us and provide the financial means for us to broadcast Christ in Prophecy on both television and radio and publish our bimonthly Lamplighter magazine and other books and resources.

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End of Program