Hebrews, The Better Covenant – Part 6 Lawson Perdue

Hebrews: The Better Covenant Part 6

In Hebrews: The Better Covenant Part 6, Pastor Lawson Perdue explains how we can put faith in Jesus and receive the promises. The new covenant is accessed through faith in Jesus Christ!

Hebrews Part 6 Transcript

Praise the Lord friends. We are teaching today from the book of Hebrews. We’re talking about a better covenant. It’s better because of the grace of God. And it’s better because we can put faith in Jesus and receive the promises. I love Hebrews chapter 11, and we’re gonna be sharing today from Hebrew chapter 11 and Hebrews chapter 12. I love it where it says by faith, the harlot Rahab. Did you know what? Smith Wigglesworth said this. He said, “Faith in God will fix you no matter how you’ve been fettered.” So praise God, no matter what your problem is, faith in God will change your life for good. Open your heart and receive God’s word today. Now we went in Hebrews chapter one, we found out that Jesus is the son of God. He’s the creator. He’s the son of man. He’s the savior. He’s God manifest in the flesh. You can see the will of God through Him. We found out He’s better than the angels and being better than angels, He’s better than demons. Praise God. In chapter three, we found out he’s better than Moses. Moses could show us the promised land, but he could not take us in. Jesus takes us in to possess the promise. In chapter five, we found out He’s a great high priest. And then in chapter seven, it says that he is a better priest. He is holy. He is harmless. He is separate from sinners. He is, praise God, without sin. He is undefiled and he’s without end of days, Jesus is our better priest. Chapter eight, we have a better covenant established on better promises. Chapter nine, we have a better sacrifice. which is the blood of Jesus, amen. And that means we have a better life. Now, the focus of most of that is grace, right? And what Jesus has done for us. So Jesus is the embodiment of the grace of God. But when you begin to understand grace, what happens is it causes you to rise up in faith. In Hebrews 11 is all about faith. Hebrews chapter four is about faith in the grace of God, and Hebrews six has a little bit to say about it. But right here in Hebrews chapter 10, I want to show you three verses, beginning in verse 22, 23 and 24, it says, “Let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water.” Verse 23, “Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised.” And verse 24 says, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. So it says, let us, let us, let us. So the response, when you understand the grace of God, the response is faith, let us. And Hebrews’ 13 chapters, and it says 13 times in Hebrews, let us. So faith is a positive response toward the grace of God. And when you really understand the grace of God, Jesus being the embodiment of grace, what it causes, it causes faith to rise up in your heart. And so Hebrews chapter 11 is all about faith. And he’s basically saying at the end of Hebrews chapter 10, don’t let go of your faith, hold on to your confidence. Keep believing God, we’re not of those who draw back to . But those who believe to the saving the soul. Hebrews 11:1 says this, It says, “Now then faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So what is faith? If we define faith, we would define faith as trust, assurance, confidence or belief. So, because we have faith, faith is the substance of things that we hope for. In other words, because we have hope in God, it causes our faith to have substance. And you can tell that all these heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11 were people of faith by what they did first of all. And by what they said, secondly. See James chapter two says this. It says, “Faith without works is dead being alone.” It says, “You show me your faith by your words, but I will show you my faith by my works.” In other words, if your faith doesn’t have corresponding positive action, then you really don’t have faith. So faith is a substance of things we hope for. Because we have hope in God, our faith has substance. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Our faith is evidence of a God that you cannot see. Now he basically goes on in the first six verses of Hebrews chapter 11 and says, “Faith pleases God.” Verse two he says, “For by faith, the elders obtained a good report.” You get a good report by faith. You don’t get a report because Johnny’s been a good boy. You get a good report because you put faith in Jesus and Jesus was good. Jesus being good took your sin, right? And gave you His righteousness. So you get a good report because you believed Jesus. He says in verse three, “Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” In other words, God spoke words and created things that you see with His spoken word. A great example of this is in Genesis chapter one, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth. And the earth was without form and void. And the holy spirit moved upon the face of the deep.” And then it begins to say in verse three, through the end of the chapter. And I think it says it nine times, “God said.” In other words, the earth didn’t have form and void, but the holy spirit moved, created a plan. And then God began to call those things that be not as though they were, God began to call it into existence. So through words, God framed the picture of the world, right? So you can take your words because you’re created in the image of God and you can speak words of faith and frame the picture of your life. Your life is gonna be a picture of what you’ve build out in the framework of faith or the framework of your words. See, 2 Corinthians 4:13 says this, It says, “We then having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore, have I spoken, we also believe and speak.” So faith, here’s how faith works. Faith works when you believe something, you can’t help but talk about it. So if you wanna change what you see, you’ve gotta change what you believe and speak. If you keep seeing the same thing and saying the same thing, you’re always gonna have the same thing. So if you wanna change what you see, you’ve gotta change what you believe and speak. That’s how it works with God. God created the heaven and earth. He created what we see with His word. And so your words are like a framework that you build the picture of your life. Jesus said it this way talking about how faith works. In Mark 11:22-24, he said, “Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say, under this mountain. Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he saith shall come to pass, shall have whatsoever he says.” So He talks about saying in verse three or verse 23, three times as much as He talks about believing. Because your saying is an example. You can tell what somebody believes by what they speak. Jesus said this in Matthew 12:34, he said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” And in verse 37, he said, “By your words, you’ll be justified. And by your words, you’ll be condemned.” Your words create the framework that you paint the picture of your life. Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, you speak to the mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast in the sea and shall not doubt, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things, verse 24 says, you desire when you pray. In other words, when you get in the presence of God, what do you want? What thing soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. So here’s how faith works. When you meditate the word, right? You begin to think differently and you begin to speak differently. As you speak differently, you begin to walk differently and then you receive differently. So it begins with the word, right? You can study it out in Joshua 1:7-8, says, in verse eight, it says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate there in both day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written there, and for then you will make your way prosperous and you shall have good success.” So as you meditate the word, right, it begins to change your mind. You begin to see in the realm of faith, you begin to see in the realm of the spirit and then you begin to speak, right? You begin to walk differently and you receive differently. Praise God. This book of the law shall not department out of your mouth, but you shall meditate there and meditate the word day and night that you may observe to do according to all that’s written there and for then you shall make your way prosperous and you shall have good success. Through faith, we understand that God, right? Look at this in verse three. “That the worlds were framed by the word of God. So that things which were seen were not made of things which do appear.” You know, science has done studies on this and that, you know, what holds matter together actually is the word of God and it’s sound, and it’s a quirk. And God’s word is what holds creation that we see together. He says in verse four, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cane by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it, he being dead yet speaks.” By faith Abel pleased God. “By faith, Enoch was translated that he would not see death and was not found because God translated him. Before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.” Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. Enoch, actually prophesied and said, “Behold, the Lord comes with 10000s of his saints. Enoch named his son Methuselah. Methuselah means at his death the deluge comes. Methuselah was the person that lived longer than anybody on the earth, 969 years. And if you study Methuselah’s life, at the year, he died, Noah’s flood came. But see Enoch, if you study the genealogies, the seventh generation from Adam. So maybe he’s the great, great, great grandson or great, great, great, great grandson of Adam. If you study this out, you can find that Adam was still alive when Enoch was a little boy. So this is what I believe happened. I believe he heard his great, great, great, great granddad talking about how he missed it in the garden and ate of the true tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And how Adam talked about how he walked with God in the garden, into the cool of the day and Enoch began to desire this. And did you know what? There’s one day that he just walked with God. He saw that on the inside and then he obtained it. “He was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God translated him.” He just walked on with God. “Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God.” Verse six says, “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” There’s only one way to please God, you’ve gotta please God by faith. It’s impossible to please God without faith, right? And he that comes to God must believe, the message says it this way, I like this. He must believe both that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. See, everybody knows that there’s a God. Every creation knows they have a creator. The devils believe in tremble. But if you know not only that God is, but God rewards those who diligently seek Him, the fruit of faith is this is that you will diligently seek God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. But he that comes to God must believe both, that He is. I believe in God. Amen. I believe that He is. And I believe that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. Therefore, I am a diligent seeker of God. Amen. I’m a diligent follower of Jesus, who is God manifest in the flesh. So faith pleases God. Without faith it’s impossible to please Him.

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It’s going, and this is a problem with some people, they’re still complaining because they have not yet identified with who God says they are and where God says they’re going.

[Announcer] What’s the difference between the old and new covenants, Jesus. In this series, Hebrews, The Better Covenant you will learn about the grace of God that we receive by faith. Jesus did the work and secured the promises for us so we can live in a better covenant with Him. You can get the book for $15, the CD or USB for $39 or the book and your choice of CD or USB for $49 with free shipping. Call 719-418-4000 or visit lawsonperdue.com.

The second thing that I wanna bring out about faith today is that faith is forward thinking. In other words, if you’re gonna get where God wants you to go, you’ve gotta think ahead of where you are. You can’t get where God wants you to go by thinking about where you’re at. Praise God. Now, you look at these people of faith they were forward thinkers. Look at verse seven, “By faith, Noah being warned of God, of things not seen as yet.” It had never even rained on the earth let alone flooding. “Moved with fear.” He respected his relationship with God. “He prepared an arc to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became the heir of righteousness, which is by faith.” You know, God spoke to Noah when he was 500 years old. And God told him that He was gonna flood the earth. And He told him to build an arc. It was just a lot of work. And you know, by faith, Noah, he saw into the future, and you know what? Faith ends up being a lot of work sometimes. Now, verse eight, look at this. “Abraham when he was called to go out into a place, which he should receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out, not even knowing where he went. By faith he sojourned, he traveled in the land of promise as in a strange country, he dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of the same promise. For he looked for a city which foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Abraham came outta all of the counties, out of Babylon. We knew it as Iraq. That’s where he came out of. Did you know that was a developed city. They said it had underground sewer and all these things. He left that to go live in a tent with his children and grandchildren. But he was moving into what God had for him. “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him, God faithful, who had promised.” Now look at this, it says by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, through faith. Sara, through faith. Now, she had to receive strength to conceive seed, the seed of the word. Do you know what? You have to have strength to conceive the seed of the word and give birth to the promise of God. He says by faith, we’ll go on down here. He says in verse 12, it says, “Therefore, sprang there, even of one and him as good as dead. So many as the stars of the sky in multitude and the sand, which is by the seashore, innumerable. These all died in faith.” Verse 13, “not having received the promises.” They ultimately didn’t receive the promise, which is Jesus, but they saw them a far off. So if you’re gonna receive the promise, first of all, you gotta see it, right? You gotta learn to see with the eyes of faith. You’ve gotta begin to hear with the ears of faith. Faith is seeing the invisible, hearing, the audible and doing the impossible. So it says they had seen them afar off, they were persuaded. They were persuaded of the promises of God. And he says, and they embraced them. They got a hold of them. You know, you need to get a hold of the promise of God. You need to embrace it. And they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. In other words, they confessed. This isn’t it. We haven’t arrived, but we’re going through, we’re gonna get it. So there’s a process. Faith is forward thinking, they had not received it, but they saw it, right? And they were persuaded of it and they embraced it and they confessed it. So before you receive it, you’ve gotta see it, get persuaded of it, embrace it and confess it. Keep speaking what God said about you. “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country, where they came out.” If they were backward thinking, faith is forward thinking. But if they kept talking about the good old days and where they came from, they might have had opportunity to have returned. In other words, if you’re gonna move where God wants you to go, you gotta let go of where you came from.

[Congregation] Yes. And he says, “But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son of whom it is said that in Isaac, thy seed shall be called accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead where he received him in a figure.” He’s a type of Jesus. Now God offered Jesus on the altar of the cross. Hebrews 13 says, “Jesus is our altar.” Praise God, Jesus is our altar. Amen, he is our approach to God. And you know what? He raised him from the dead. But Isaac was a type when Abraham offered him. Now look at this. It goes on in verse 20. It says, “By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.” Not only did they operate by faith and they acted in faith. By faith, Noah built. By faith, Abraham obeyed. Through faith, Sara received strength to conceive seed. But it says, now it says, by faith what? Isaac blessed. So acted, first of all, faith is an act. And second law, faith is a word and they spoke words of faith. By faith Isaac blessed both Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. “By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel.” They were in Egypt. They’d been in Egypt for about, at that point in time, I think for about, it was 360 years from when Joseph made commandment concerning his bones. And so Israel was in Egypt just over 400 years because Moses got ahead of God at the beginning, supposed to be 400, ended up being 410 or something. So about some 50 they’d been in Egypt some 50 years. And Joseph makes a commandment concerning his bones. And gave commandment, he said, “When you leave here, don’t leave my bones here. We’re going to the promised land.” Hallelujah. So faith is forward thinking. Not only is faith, number one, please God, faith is forward thinking, but faith makes a decision. I love what Jesse Duplantis said. He said this, “Most of the time in the realm of faith, I made a decision and God backed it.” Amen. Now, let’s look at verse 23. He said, “By faith Moses, when he was born was hidden three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the King’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He made a choice, right? He identified more with the people of God, more with the children of Israel than he did with the Egyptians. Do you know, Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s house. More than likely Moses was to be the next leader of Egypt, the greatest empire in the world at that day. And Moses made a decision to, says it right here, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He esteemed the reproach of Christ’s greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the repayment of reward. He believed that God would repay him far more. “By faith he forsook so Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” Moses made a choice. Aaron was preaching on Wednesday night and he talked about how the children of Israel got in the wilderness and they started whining. We remember the onions and we remember the garlics and we remember the leeks, how good they were. And you were slaves there. And he talked about how Moses had much more to lose than the average Israeli, and he wasn’t complaining. And the reason he wasn’t complaining is because he identified with who God said he was and where God said he was going. And this is a problem with some people, they’re still complaining because they have not yet identified with who God says they are and where God says they’re going. Hallelujah. By Faith he forsook Egypt. “Through faith,” in verse 28, “he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood lest he would be destroyed with the firstborn would touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians talked about doing and were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith, the Harlot Rahab, I heard somebody talking about the walls of Jericho. And they said the walls of Jericho literally, that they were built up so that they could have chariots right on the top of them. So they marched around for seven days, once a day for six days. And then the seventh day, seven times, and God causes them to fall under their cell. And the children walked through and took the land. By faith, the harlot Rahab. I love that. Verse 31, “By faith, the harlot Rahab.” God doesn’t care where you came from. He’s more concerned about where you’re going than where you came from. Praise God.

[Congregation] Amen.

Smith Wigglesworth said, “Faith in God will help you no matter how you’re fettered.” Doesn’t matter what trouble you have. Faith in God will help you. Amen. “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not because she received the spies with peace.” You know, Rahab made a decision. She believed in God more than she believed in her king. She respected God more than she respected the king of Jericho. Praise God. So faith number one, pleases God. Faith, number two, is forward thinking. Faith, number three, is a living demonstration of confidence in God. Let’s look at verse 32. “What shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, Samson, Jepthae, David, Samuel, the prophets. Who through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight to armies of aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.” Look at verse 35. “And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Why do some people get, you know, raised from the dead essentially, and other people choose, right? To die and not accept deliverance? It’s because of what they choose. Women received their dead raised to life because they believed it. What you believe has a lot to do with what you receive. “Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire.” You need to be consumed in the fire of his love. October 2nd, 2014, I saw the glory of God. And when I saw the glory of God, when he looked at me and I looked into His eyes, His eyes were flames of fire, orange and yellow and red. I was consumed with the love, the love of Jesus, and we need to be consumed with the love of Jesus. And if you will get consumed with the love of Jesus, if you’ll get consumed with the grace of God, the grace of God will change your life. The grace of God will put you on a new track. And listen, faith is no problem when you understand who Jesus is.

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