Good evening, brothers and sisters. It's good to see everyone.

Could you
please turn with me to our theme verse for this weekend's conference in
Hebrews and the book of Hebrews?
If you could turn, please to Chapter 10, Hebrews, Chapter 10, verse 37,
Hebrews Chapter 10, verse 37.
For yet in a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay, but
my righteous one shall live by faith, And if he shrinks back, my soul has no
pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of
those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
And then if we could look forward several verses to verse 19. If you could read
together verses 19 through verse 23, verse 19.
Since therefore, brethren, 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.
Then if we could turn to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 12, Romans
chapter 12, we're just going to read verse. 3. Romans chapter 12, verse 3. For
through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more
highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound
judgement, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
And then the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Galatians
chapter 2, verse 20.
I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and delivered himself up for me.
Let's bow for word of prayer. Lord, we are so thankful to you, for tonight we
pray, Lord, that your covering would be over every one of us, Lord, for we tell
you how in our heart we have been longing to hear what is from you. So, Lord,
we pray tonight that you would have the full liberty and the authority to be able
to speak to every one of our hearts, from the speaker to the listener. Lord, for all
of us we bow before you, Lord, We tell you that without you, Lord, we have
nothing. So, Lord, tonight may you have the freedom to have your headship
among your people. And Lord, that all of us would be listening and looking to
you. And Lord, all the things that have distracted our hearts, our travels here
and. The. Concerns of our life, Lord, we lay them before your feet, and Lord, we
do pray that you would have all the glory. So, Lord, may you be with us. We are
so dependent upon you. We thank you, Lord. In your precious name we pray.
Amen.
The brothers in their prayer before the Lord for this conference have heard from
the Lord that for this conference the topic on his heart is this matter of faith.
The matter of faith has probably never been more important than today, for we
all know that in these times that. To live by faith is very much under attack by
our adversary. We remember at the end of Paul's life he said three things about
his life, he said, I have fought the fight, I have finished the course, and I have
kept the faith. And then he said, And now there is reserved for me the crown of
righteousness which the Lord God, the righteous judge, has saved for me, and
not only for me, but for all who have loved disappearing.
And at the end of Paul's life he was saying something of such importance. He
was saying that there is yet a fight that is worth fighting for. And in these days
the enemy has been so at work among the Lord's people among us, to dull our
hearts, to make it the sense in our hearts that there is no longer.
A Fight that is worth fighting for. Isn't it true that we have been saved and in our
salvation everything has been given to us? We would never deny that this is
true. In fact, it is one of the most wonderful gifts that any of us has ever
received.
But Brothers and sisters, Paul was saying at the end of his life there is yet
something worth fighting for. And the question to us today, brothers and sisters,
is, is that? Sense in her heart still there. He was saying that there was a course
of my life and that course was very much like a boat traveling. And he said, I
have been on this course and I have finished this course. And he said and I
have kept this faith. Something had been given to him and he had taken it, and
he had sensed that there was something precious about this faith. And so he
was saying at the end of his life, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
course, and I have kept the faith. And so, brothers and sisters, the Lord now has
put back on our hearts this question. What is this faith to us in particular in these
days, and I should say in particular to my generation? What is this faith and
what does it mean to us? And do we had still have a sense in our heart that
there is something that is still left to fight for? Because, brothers and sisters,
whenever anyone engages in a battle or a fight, we go in with the sense that
there is something, there is some opposition, there is some danger to us and
we have to be willing to go in with the sense that we are willing to put ourselves
out onto the field. And to be Counted for a purpose and a mission. And so the
question for us today, brothers and sisters, is do we still believe, Do we believe
in the one who said these things? And do we believe in the one who is our
captain? And if we believe and we believe in living by this faith, how does that
translate to our real life? The critical question is how shall we live? And in our
theme verse we see the answer if We can look again, brothers and sisters, at
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 37 will just read verse 37 once more. And it is a
short verse, but we will see it is a very dense verse. The Lord tells us in chapter
in verse 37. For yet in a very little while he who is coming will come and will not
delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul
has no pleasure in him.
So for a moment. You would permit me to just label these three parts of this
verse. A,B and C. I don't usually do this, but this verse is so dense I figure we
have to look at it pretty carefully the 1st. Part we'll call part A. The Lord is telling
us for yet in a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay. And
so of course this first Part is telling us that in his heart of hearts he is longing to
come.
And the Bible tells us, and he will not delay. That means nothing will hold him
back.
And the question that we have to pose to ourselves then is why? Why is it that
we still Sense that he hasn't come yet.? Now brothers sisters, if this portion of
the verse is true, he's sort of like an Olympic athlete who is at the line ready to
run, and he's waiting in his heart. He will not delay, but he is waiting. And so the
delay is not because of his intention. His intention in part A of this verse is very
clear. He will not delay. But he's waiting. He's waiting for something.
And so the first part of our theme verse is it speaks of the Lord's heart in these
days. He is longing to come, and the delay is not on his part. He is waiting.
And he gives the hint in Part B. And this part reads but my Righteous shall live
by faith, and this of course is the main theme portion of the verse and it's
borrowed.
From the Old Testament, the book of Habakkuk, and it's quoted three times in
the New Testament and what we see in this part and it's also translated the just
shall live by faith. And So what we see is when we look at in the New
Testament, at the sites where it's quoted here in Hebrews, in the book of
Romans, in the book of Galatians, what we see is that this verse is a huge
verse. It speaks, of course, that when we are saved, we are saved by faith. And
this is a great blessing, as we had mentioned. But it goes on in the book of
Hebrews to say something further. Not only are we saved by faith, but brothers
and sisters, he writes, My righteous one shall live by faith. And so when we hear
of these words, my righteous one in the in the word my He's Speaking of these
people. I said, these already belong to me. These are the ones who belong to
me. And then he writes my righteous ones. So we've already been made right.
So what the Bible is telling us is not only shall we be saved by faith, but after we
have been saved, we now belong to Him. We have been made right before him.
The commandment or the the calling is still there. My righteous ones shall live
by faith. And So what he's saying to us today is that there's something important
for us to go forward living by faith.
And then the last portion in portion C, we'll call it, he writes. And if he shrinks
back, my soul has no pleasure in him. And this these words. If he shrinks back,
the scholars have pulled this very much like a boat on a course that pulls its
sails. In and so we just sort of flounder around, being carried away, carried
around by the waves. And what the Lord is saying is that there's a moving
forward. And in this moving forward, He can be pleased in His people. And so
when we put all three of these together, and they're all linked together, what the
verse, our theme verse is telling us is the Lord's heart is not to delay. He is
longing to come back and He is waiting. He's waiting that the just shall live by
faith. And when we live by faith, we will be pleasing to his heart. So at this point,
brothers anf sisters, there has to be some small clarification, and that is that the
unit of the unit of salvation is. That faith believes and the unit of pleasing him is
that faith lives. And we have to be think about this for a moment, brothers and
sisters, because this is critical to our moving forward.
So we are saved by this wonderful free gift of grace. In fact we think of when
Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we found the one of whom Moses was
speaking and he's from Nazareth. And Nathaniel said, is there anything good
from Nazareth? And Philip said, come and see, and Nazareth and Nathaniel
came and found that he was the Messiah. And in this salvation point what we
see is that in fallen men there's nothing good in any one of us. But in fallen men
the Lord put one small escape pod. And I think I might have shared this with the
Flushing brother and sisters last year. I think of Princess Leia's ship going
down. There's no chance for salvation. But in a. Ship that was going down, the
Lord placed one small escape pod. There's nothing good in men, not one single
thing. And the only thing that can save us is that in our heart of hearts we can
say, Lord, I believe in you. You are my salvation. And so every one of us who
have been saved, this is the greatest gift because it matters not who we are or
what we have done or the heaviness of our sins. This escape pod is a small
little capacity to put our faith in him. And So what it is, is once we say we are I
believe in you, Lord, this faith saves us and saves us to the uttermost, Nothing
added. And so our our dear brother, J Vernon McGee, likes to say faith plus
nothing equals salvation. And isn't this true? Brothers and sisters, this is the
great foundation of our life. I still remember my grandmother when she was
passing away. She was a lifelong Buddhist, and I remember on her the last day
of her life, my family members who have been telling her the gospel for so
many years and she had resisted. On the last day of her life, she accepted. She
told my father to take the household idol and drop it in the trash. And so he did.
And she closed her eyes and she passed away. And you know, brothers and
sisters, where she is, she's in glory. You see, this is the great, great gift Of our
life. That we are saved by one thing and one thing alone, by faith. And So what
we see in this verse is that our salvation is faith believing.
And it's a wonderful gift. And then we see that faith doesn't stop its work there.
By faith the Lord then begins to cause us to grow and to live. And it is by faith
that we have the chance in our life to be pleasing to Him. And of course, all of
us Think of the day that we will stand before our Lord. When we see Him face to
face and we come before him, What do we have to present? And we all long for
him to say, Well done, good and faithful servant. You see, brothers and sisters,
what we want to be able to present to him on that day, it's no longer a question
of salvation. It is a question of we want to stand before him and have him look
at us and say, I am pleased, I'm pleased over what you have offered in your life
to me. And we believe from our theme verse that should the people of God live
this way, He would say in his heart, there's no there's no longer a hindrance
from my return. And on that day, Bron sisters, we will all rejoice when we see
him. We believe that it is somehow linked, as we see in this verse, to living a life
of faith, and that life of faith being pleasing to his heart. And so for this
conference, brothers and sisters, the Lord has put it on the brother's heart that
this shall be our topic to live by faith. And the topic that has been assigned to
me is specifically the topic of a faith, that is, faith received. Now to be honest
with you, when the brothers told me this topic, I immediately prayed and I said,
Lord, once you explain what this means to me, then I'll be able to share about it
because I really had. No idea. But I'm thankful to the Lord because the Lord
opened the word to me and I I think I caught a glimpse of what's in his heart for
this.
And so the way that he put forth a verse to me is if we can read it together, it's
in the book of numbers, numbers, Chapter 11, Numbers, Chapter 11, and verse
11. Now to begin with, this is how we're going to separate my two sessions on
this topic of faith received and numbers. Chapter 11, verse 11 we can think of as
the 1st letter of complaint to the Lord. Now what we know about if anyone has
ever received a letter of complaint at work, letters of complaint are often very
true, more true than we would like to imagine. And so here is Moses letter of
complaint, verse 10. Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their
families, each man at the doorway of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was
kindled greatly. And Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, Why
hast thou been so hard on thy servant? And why have I not found favor in thy
sight, that thou hast laid the burden of his people on me? Was it I who
conceived all these people? Was it I who brought them forth, that thou should
sayest to me, carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant to
the land, which thou dost swear to their fathers? And so here in this letter of
complaint, Moses was saying. Lord, this is what you commanded me to do. You
commanded me to carry them like I'm breastfeeding them. And not only did you
want me to carry them like you're breastfeeding them, but I have to breastfeed
them as I'm leading them in the direction that you want me to go.
And So what he was saying, he's reflecting to us now the Lord's commandment
to him as they were walking through this land.
And the commandment is very simple. The Lord was telling Moses, my people,
they need to live by faith today and they also need to live by faith for the
journey. They need to be breastfed today and nurtured and carried. But I'm
leading them to go in a direction and the matter of living by faith is just this way.
Sometimes if we think of living by faith only for the direction, we can get totally
lost. I know sometimes we think and Bronson, sisters, we have to mention that
through the years we've heard so many wonderful things of the Lord's purposes
in his heart. And what happens sometimes is we hear them and we might hear
them time and again. And after a while we it becomes almost lingo to us that we
hear of the eternal purpose of God. And we start to think that this is not
applicable to me. But Bruns sisters, what we'd like to share today is that this life
of faith, it absolutely is unto the eternal purpose of God. But the things of the
Lord's eternal purpose have every practicality to our daily life. In fact, the things
of God's eternal purpose govern our living day by day, and the way that we live
day by day influences the fulfilling of the eternal purpose of God. And so in this
living by faith, the Lord by His grace, in terms of the faith received. What we'd
like to share on these two days is tonight we would like to share on faith
received, To Live Today And then tomorrow, by the Lord's grace, we would like
to share on faith received to live for the journey we want to See that there is no
tomorrow without living by faith today. So, so Brown and sisters, what is it to
receive faith? Where does it come from? In the book of Romans we read
together in chapter 12. The Bible gives us the answer. In chapter 12, which we
read, the Bible states God has allotted to each a measure of faith, and that is to
say that the Lord is the one who grants us the faith to live day by day. We also.
Read Noah in Hebrews chapter 12. The Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus is the
author of our faith and so we know in our heart that all of the things of God
come from God and so that's the origin of our faith and what we also know. And
remember in Luke chapter 17 the disciples said increase our faith and so the
corollary to our topic of faith received is faith increased. And So what we know
is that the Lord is the one who can increase our faith. And we read also in
Second Corinthians that the Bible tells us your faith can grow and so. We trust
that the Lord is the author of our faith, and he is the perfecter of our faith, that
faith comes from him and that he can cause it to grow. But sometimes we hear
that, and what exactly does it mean?
And a number of years ago, when I asked the Lord, he gave me an analogy,
and I hope it's as helpful to you as it was to me. I have AI have a particular love
for Diet Coke, and I probably shouldn't, but I do, And I for a period of time I
drank it, probably again more than I should have. And one day I was taking off
to go to work. And as I was leaving my house, my son Aaron, who was probably
3 at the time, he ran to me as I was leaving the house. And he said to me daddy
Diet Coke and he held in his hand a Diet Coke and he gave it to me just before I
left. And Bruns, sisters, I have to tell you, I was so happy. My son knows I love
Diet Coke and he brought it and he gave it to me. And the question that we
have to raise is, whose Diet Coke was that can, You know, I have a job and I
work for a living. And when I work by direct pay, my job pays my checking
account. And then I have a wonderful wife who knows what I like. And so she
goes to the grocery store and she purchases a can, a 12 pack of Diet Coke and
brings it home. And my wife used to leave it on the bottom cubby hole, right
where my son Aaron could reach it. And the question that I have is if I had taken
the Diet Coke and I placed it before the brothers and sisters, and maybe some
of your lawyers can tell me if I put it there. And I made an argument myself
against my son Aaron as to who whose Diet Coke that was. My suspicion is that
everyone would agree. I worked for it. I earned the money. My wife bought the
Diet Coke with my money, and if we were in the court of law, someone would
finally decide, well, that Diet Coke obviously belongs to You to me. And it does
belong to me. I pay for it. It's mine. But you see, Brun sisters, what had
happened is it had been made available to my little boy. And so he was able to
go get it. Something that was mine made available to him. He was able to get it,
and he was able to come and give it back to me. And when he did this, Brun
sisters, my heart was so happy. I mean, I could technically, I could say this
always belonged to me. Why should I be happy? But you see, what it shows is
that in my son's heart, he had a heart for me. And something was made
available to him and he took it and he came and he used it and he gave it back
to me. So Brun's sisters, the question of faith received. What we're asking is
what the origin of this faith. We know that the one of the fruits of the Spirit
faithfulness, being full of faith. And So what we believe is that the origin of this
faith is from the Lord, but He makes it available to us are. We who are Sinners.
And he makes the things of of his son available to us after we've been saved.
And what grace is this, brothers and sisters that we can take of it and by faith
bring it back to him? So this question where does our faith come from? If we
can think of it this way, it's actually very simple and it's very real. And So what
we would like to share upon is then this these points of from whom we have
received our faith.
Now the other thing that we should mention before we move on is that in the
book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we read that by faith all these things happened.
As an example, Abel was able to make an offering. Noah in reverence prepared
an ark. We think of the this Hall of Fame sawn in two They were martyred, they
quenched the fire, and on and on these great men and women of God who live
by faith. But Bron sisters, what we should say is that to live by faith. Yes, these
moments will come. But if we just use Hebrews Chapter 11 as our examples of
living by faith, then each of us, our life span would be 5 days if we thought of
living by faith as those great moments of our life, choosing to be saved or
choosing a career or choosing a wife or doing something huge for the Lord.
There are these moments in our life and they are moments of great faith. Faith
manifested in our life. But Bruns sisters. Every one of these Public moments of
a life lived by faith was actually supported and founded on all these private
moments of living by faith in the day-to-day living. And So what we see is these,
these once in a lifetime moments, they're all buoyed by a regular life of faith
lived before the Lord. And what is immensely pleasing to him is when we are
faithful in these small things every day, in the things that the Lord has presented
to us in our living. And may I say also, brun sisters, that this is particularly
important to my generation today. You know, if I could, if I could share that for
those of us now, I would say maybe less than 50, maybe more than 50, I don't
know. But I know more about those less than 50. What we realize today is that
the enemy is all around us. He has dulled, dulled our heart to the notion that
there is still a life worth living this way, and the sense of right and wrong has all
now been dulled out, grayed out. And he's working in particular among us. The
suggestion is we have every excuse now not to live a life of faith. We have the
excuses of our family. We have the excuse of providing for them the excuse of
our mortgages and our jobs, and being responsible to what responsibility he has
placed upon us. And what is happening is that in his very cunning way, he has
made the life of faith something very abnormal to us. And more than ever from
sisters. We need to have in our heart the desire the Lord, where you lead, I'm
willing to go. You know, the Lord in our lives has blessed us with many brothers
and sisters who have come before us, who have helped us to see something.
And you know, should the Lord carry and brothers and sisters, go home to him
and receive a crown of righteousness to us, brothers and sisters, will the Lord
find a testimony among His people? It is not enough that we have heard great
things, and it is not enough that we can quote these great things or like a
badge, we can place them on our Christian uniforms, that this is the tradition
and heritage that we have inherited. But brothers and sisters, those things the
Lord has the ability to, He has like an X-ray vision to know what is real and what
is just superficial. And he can, He can tease it out. We remember when the
people of God came to the border of the promised land and all the spies went in
and when they all came out and Joshua and Caleb were the ones who said let's
go in, you know, those giants, they're going to be our food. We can take them
And the other tribes, there's no way we're going in. We're going to be
annihilated by them. And that's when they learned that because of this, that
their generation was not going to be permitted in. And the next day, sometimes
we don't remember, but the next day they decide, well, let's go in anyways. The
outward behavior is the same, but the inward, the faith, the motivation was not
there. And so they were. They were, they were given a thorough beating. And
what we see these days, Bruns sisters, the Lord is longing for something to be
real in our hearts. And we have heard many great things. But Bruns, sisters, if
the Lord were to look into our hearts, can we live every day by faith? And not
just those moments of greatness where we need to stand up and and do
something in public. But what prepares us for those moments are those private
moments where the Lord has kept us hidden in our daily life and we live that life
of faith. And so when we speak of being faith received for today, we are
Speaking of an incredibly important topic. The things of the eternal purpose of
God are linked very much to living today. In what may seem like a whole bunch
of mundane things. The Bible reminds us that for those of us who are saved,
our hearts are anchored within the veil. And I I sometimes think that, you know,
an anchor is in one place. But if we were to look at this boat above on the water,
we could see the boat kind of going in the circumference. And in our life there is
a circumference of different things that happen. We when we're in college, we
have to go to school. We need to study. When we're married, we have to take
care of our children and our wife, and there are all these daily normal
responsibilities. But when we penetrate deep into our hearts, where is the
anchor of our soul?

And that is such a critical question, because we can be our daily lives revolve
around so many things. But in our heart of hearts, where is the anchor of our
life? And so this is the life of faith. Now the brothers, he gave me a verse to
consider for this particular question and so if we could look at it together, it's in
Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10 verse verses 19 to 23.
But I'm just going to, I'm. Going to read it through here, since therefore,
brethren, 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 and 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 so in these verses it speaks of drawing near with a sincere heart in
full assurance of faith. So how can we live this way, drawing near in full
assurance of faith? In these verses that were provided to us? The Bible tells us
two small hints as to how we can have our faith increased and received for daily
life. The 1st is. 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 so the first speaks of this veil torn for us, and we'll consider that
together. And the second since is in verse 21 and it reads, And since we have a
great priest over the House of God. And so here is the second clue to our daily
life. We have a high priest in the House of God. So by the Lord's grace, let's
take our remaining time and look at these two two ways that the Lord can
increase our faith for today. Now firstly, this veil. The veil was a piece of fabric
that hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies that was about two
inches thick. It's a thick we think the scholars are two to five inches thick. So it
was a thick veil. And so it it was pretty much served as a barrier between the
presence of God and the people of God. And what we remember is throughout
time the separation always existed after men fell. If we remember at the very
beginning, when men fell, the tree of life, which was the life of God, was moved
to another place. And do you remember the Lord had two cherubim guarded.
Now what are cherubim, brothers and sisters? Cherubim are angels. And you
know, if we looked at Valentine's Day cards, we see these cherubim at these at
these plump baby angels with little bow and arrows. And we what we read about
them in the book of Genesis is they're not that way at all. You know, their
weapon of choice was not a small bow and arrow. Their weapon of choice was
the flaming sword. And So what would happen is if we tried sinners, tried to
approach into the presence of God. The cherubim would likely chop us in two
with these these flaming swords of fire. And So what we see Is over the veil
there were. Sown, I think, these these cherubim. The Bible in two portions reads
that the veil was made with cherubim, and I don't think that the cherubim were
helping like sew them together. They meant that they were made with the
cherubim imprinted onto the veil, and the veil hung there with the cherubim to
remind us that the presence of God was going to be separated from sinners.
And it just it just had to be this way very much for our own protection. Should we
have chosen to go in, we we would die. And so the veil very much was our
protection, but it was a necessity because of our fallen nature. Even when the
Tabernacle was taken down, the veil would fall over the the ark, and the
purpose of it was to protect and to cover and function again as a separation. But
here's the problem. In order for us the Lord's intention for us in our life, he
wanted to draw us in and near to Him. And so the barrier was between us and it
would always be between US. And the way that the Lord showed it to me when
I was asking about this is is just that it it was it was like the enemy had crafted
the perfect unsolvable puzzle, and it was like a group of all of us perhaps trying
to get into a house. And the house had these double doors at the front that were
locked. And the only way in was through these double doors, the veil locked.
And the only key was locked on the inside of the house. And so all of us are
standing on the outside wondering how can we get in. The Lord on the inside is
desiring for us to come. And in our heart of hearts, men know that we need God
no matter what the world says in the heart. And the deepest part of men, we
know that there is something more. And so men wanted to go in, but we can't.
Doors locked. The keys are they are in the inside.
Two weeks ago my mother in law's home was broken into and all as the
robbers were trying to get in the door, the front door was was they tried to get in
and they destroyed the door and they crashed down the sliding door and got in.
And I went there at 2:30 in the morning and we had the the door bolted The the
crashed and sliding door closed with with with plywood. And after I closed it with
plywood I realized oh, I can't get in anymore. The plywood area, the shattered
door was closed and I couldn't open the door. The key was well we couldn't find
the key later but say it was on the inside. And so this is the very conundrum I
want to get in but I can't get in. And you see Bruns sisters the enemy also knew
he knows what's on the inside. And the book of Ezekiel tells us that he was on
the holy mountain, the stones of fire. And he saw all the glory. He knew all the
glory. He knew his His whole being is meant to try to get in and usurp that
throne. He's seen it, he wanted it. And every fiber of who he is is to take that
that place. And so the perfect, the perfect puzzle. But you see, Hebrews chapter
10, it didn't come for free. In fact, it was a great 'cause because the Lord Jesus,
he loves us. His desire is that we would be able to live a life of faith, and in living
this life of faith we could take of his life and bring it back to him. His heart might
be pleased and one day his bride would be made ready. This is the fiber of our
Lord Jesus being and what the enemy could not fathom. He knew there was a
way out because he had been cast down. He was cast out. So there was a way
out. But it was amazing thing. Is that the one who sat on the mountain of God in
the glory and the stones of fire? By his own choice, he being the key on that
great day, was born a baby in Bethlehem. And what we see, brothers and
sisters, is his intention was that he would come, he would open the veil, so that
we could enter in. You see, brothers and sisters, this barrier to us, we could not
do it, but it shows his heart of hearts that his longing was to come. And I always
imagined it that that the two cherubim was about to strike as as we want to get
through. And the Lord Jesus stands there with his hands up, and then through
him we walk in, we can go to him, hide in him, and then we come out on the
other side. We see the only way is that we would be buried in his heart. And
then the cherubim cannot strike, because he is their Lord the only way. And So
what we see is by this great and this great cost He came and he made a way
for us to enter in. And on that day, 33 some months later, when the Lord was
crucified on the cross, and when he at the very end he said, it is finished. And
what happened? Praise the Lord. The veil was torn in two, from top to bottom,
top to bottom. So those of us who are short, it's not just for the short. If you're
tall, the top's everything. Doesn't matter who we are. The whole veil was torn
apart and now we can get in. And now that it's open, brothers, sisters, no one
can shut it. No one can shut it. And we reminded in the book of Romans,
nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So this opening is forever. But what is the. So now the enemy changes his
tactic. The way is that he can't shut it anymore. So now what he wants for us to
do is for us to be saved and stand on the outside and admire What a beautiful,
torn open way to get in. You know, we'll admire it from the outside, but the Lord
is calling to us. Come in and enter in.
Now, we shared a little bit about this last year, brothers and sisters, but it's it's
always true. And it's always worth the reminder that in order for our faith to grow
day by day, we are to live within the veil we have to choose in our heart as to
where we will live. And the enemy in the world is calling to us. Live out here.
Live out here in in your what is the standard of the world now? Your resumes
and your zip code and your tax bracket and these things that the world values
on the outside that can pump us up. And he's calling to us again. To to our
generation. He's calling to us. Stay here. Live out here. Be saved. Be saved.
Live out here. You know, where you have the riches of the world and there is a
cost. But the Lord is saying, come in, live inside. It is inside where we live every
day that our faith can grow is in this sharing of our life with him. My sons, I
should probably give the example from my wife's point of view, but my, my sons
and my daughter, they have faith in their mom. They really do. And the reason
that they do is they they live with her every day. They know that when she says
she will do something, she will do it. They live with her. They see it and they
believe. And so when the large moment comes, the moment where they have to
stand up for something or when they need their mom the most, they know that
their mom will be there because in all the daily normal things she was there.
And so we shouldn't minimize this. Sponsors, we sometimes think of the great
things, but to live every day within the veil is very important.
In Hebrews Chapter 11, there are three examples that we can see.
We think of Noah. Noah, he lived at a time when everyone was doing what was
right in their own eyes. And Noah did not do that. He was. They lived in the
middle of nowhere. And Noah was given the commandment to build a gigantic
boat nowhere near anywhere where you could actually use a boat. And so
people could come and look at him and think, what are you doing? You know,
they, they were doing everything that was right in their own eyes. And here was
a man who lived by faith, and he was doing what he was asked to do by his
Lord. And So what it shows is that he was willing to live by faith. And when time
came, and when the the the rain began, he followed the Lord's leading. And
they all went within the veil, the ark, and they hid there in the ark. And the door
was closed. And the world was on the outside, and he was on the inside, and
within this hiding in this ark it had been his life. And so when the time came,
when the moment came, the rain started. He had a place to go. And Bron
sisters, this is so true for us, living in a time when everyone is doing what is right
in their own eyes. If there is a young person in college or whatever who says,
you know what, I'm going to do what the Lord wants me to do, and the world will
for sure say what are you doing and it will shun us. But we thank the Lord that
when we do this every day and live this way, when the moment comes, we
know where to hide. And Noah and his family, they were able to hide inside the
ark. The Bible gives us the same example of Moses and said by faith Moses
kept the Passover. What is this, brothers and sisters? It was that on that day
when the Lord's purposes were to be fulfilled, Moses told the people, we want
you to take the blood of the of the of the sacrificial lamb, and we would like for
you to paint it over your door. And then when the time comes, we want you to
hide within the veil this blood which represents the blood of our Lord, this
broken body in the veil, and you hide inside. So Moses, Moses hid within these,
hid within their homes with the the blood over. Well we see again by faith this is
what it is. We live inside the veil, and the world is on the outside and the world
of riches, the world of plenty. And we hide within and we see in Moses the same
as we saw in Noah. But my favorite is Rahab. These Moses in Noah, you think
they're awesome people, but who's Rahab? Well, Rahab saved these spies and
she said to them. I know that your Lord is going to destroy the city, so please
spare me. The spies. The Spies folder. Here's a scarlet thread. Hang it outside
your window. Now, if we think about this for a moment, this is kind of a crazy
idea. Your armies are coming to destroy the city. In order for me to be saved, I'm
supposed to take this this thread and put it outside my window. The thread is
scarlet. They hung out the window. By faith. She did it. And you know, everyone
who hid in her house was saved, her and sisters, by faith she did this. And So
what we see is to live within the veil. It's very real. It can be done by Rahab,
who was hardly anybody, and Moses and any Hebrew and Noah. It is the
beginning of our life. It is the end of our life. And every one of us can live within
the veil. And this is to be living near to Him. Practically speaking, what it means
is we share our daily life with Him and the things that happened to us. We
acknowledge Him. One of the most simple ways to live within the veil is that
when something happens, we say thank you to the Lord. We recognize that
something that has happened to us is by His doing. And this has happened to
me. In preparing this message, I think the Lord wanted to make it real to me.
And I just realized how many things every day the Lord does for us. And and we
sometimes don't realize how actively involved He is in our daily life. And we
think he's too big for this or he's too grand for this. But what we must do is that
we begin to thank him and I appreciate him for what he does for us every day.
And when that happens, there's a very natural conclusion. Our faith increases.
It's grows in a very normal living way. Nothing huge or artificial. It's very, very
real. And so this is the issue of living within the veil. And the second thing that
was mentioned as a tool for us to to have full assurance of faith in our life was
this issue of the priest. Now a priest functioned in many roles in in that time the
priest made offerings for the people. The priest isn't Our Lord is an advocate for
us, and He also leads us in worship. Brothers and sisters, this second little hint
is that we have a wonderful High Priest. Now sometimes I wonder. I remember
when when Joshua was about to battle in the land, and when he came to the
land of Jericho and he was looking over the land, he was met by a. Soldier with
a sword drawn. And Joshua asked him, are you for us or are you for our
enemies? And the man answered no, right? And Joshua was saying, I gave you
two choices. A are you for us, or B are you for our enemies? There was no C
which is no. And he said no. He said, I am neither for you, and I am not for your
enemies. He's basically saying you are for me. I am not for you. You are for me.
Because Icon is captain of the armies of the of the Lord of Hosts. And then
Joshua took his shoes off and bowed before him, because he realized he was
looking at God who came as captain. And sometimes we wonder, well, in the
Lord's wisdom, why didn't he come to be crucified this way? Couldn't he have
come and be crucified as a man, an adult man? And in him is he not wonderful
enough and perfect enough that he could have paid for my sins, but instead our
Lord in his wisdom came as a as a small baby, As a baby. And he grew up. And
the Bible leaves a lot of details of his life in these years out we don't really know.
But some things we know. We know that he grew up and he suffered difficulties.
He was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief, and we think that
before Bethlehem for many eons. In fact at the very beginning, you know, by his
hands the the sun was a became a fiery ball just before him. And, you know, we
can imagine that when he was five years old and he looked up at the sun that
he created and all of a sudden he had to squint because this God of the
universe had been packaged in the in the small form of a of a man. And he
squinted. How many eons had he been able to look right into that fireball? And it
was nothing to him. The greatness of who he was was nothing to him. But now
he was in in the form of a boy. He looked up and it's too bright for his human
eyes. Or we think of the giant sequoias, you know, by his hands. He just, you
know, grow them up. And then when he became old enough and and his father
asked him to become a Carpenter and help him and he could take the beams of
wood to work on and get a splinter. Well what business does the son of God
have getting a splinter And we think and and you might say, well I never thought
his skin was able to be penetrated. But one sisters, he was very much a man.
And 25 years later, some Roman guards would surely tell us that his flesh is
not, is not impenetrable. He created the trees and he created the sun. What
business does he have doing what he did? Couldn't he not have found an
easier way? But you see, we see the greatness of our Lord, his heart for us and
the wisdom. Because he knew that one day we would come to him in need and
we would, we would want to live by faith. We come to him as our priest and our
advocate, and he would have to be able to say to us, I will advocate for you and
I will I I understand He did this, brothers and sisters, because he wanted for us
to have, no matter how old we are, no matter what we are going through, He
wanted for us to be able to go to him and have him be someone who
understood what it was to suffer. And in this we see the love of our Lord, His
wisdom and His calling out to us. Come close, come nearer. And He wants us to
share our life with him. And we think, well, how can we live a life full of faith, full
of the assurance of faith and. What the Lord is telling us is. Come near to me.
Share your life with me. Tell me it will. Let me advocate for you all the all the
challenging moments of our life. What we can rest upon is that there's one who
will always be praying for us, always be advocating for us and His. His intention
is that we would have the liberty and the comfort to be able to come to Him and
say, Lord, I need you. It's very clearly illustrated in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17,
and if we could read it together it can't get any clearer. Hebrews chapter 2.
Therefore verse 17. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things,
that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest, and things pertain to
God, making propitiation for the sins of the people. For since he himself was
tempted, and that which he has suffered, he is able to. Come to the aid of those
who are tempted. We see that, brother, sisters. Come to the aid of those who
are tempted. So brothers and sisters, do we see that everything was by design
and his greatness to us today is that he's wanting for us to come near to him.
And as we live close to him and share these our daily, our daily life with him, we
begin to realize that he understands and his longing for us is to be near to him.
In the hospital, there's a wonderful thing called the support group. And when we
take care of our cancer patients, sometimes when there's no more difficult place
to work than the pediatric oncology floor and sometimes when children are lost,
the parents think there's no, no way that we can survive this. And if the if the
physician goes to them and tells them, you know it's going to be OK, you're
going to, you're going to make it through. I've seen many parents go through
this. They would say in that moment, what are you talking about? How could
you possibly know what I'm going through? But in that same example, if that
mother were to find a mother in a support group where that mother lost their son
or daughter in the same way, and that mother came and said to them, you know
it's going to be OK right now, it's really tough, but you'll make it through friends
and sisters. The effect is totally different because. The. Person going through
the suffering knows that that person has gone through the same thing and
they're drawn to them. And it's only in that context that that peace and that can
be transferred. It's very much the same way the Lord knows how we are. And
so in His wisdom he decided as the as the, as our our God, the Father and God
the Son and our wonderful Holy Spirit. They were debating or discussing, I
should say what is the right way. This was the way that they deemed like the
Lord, Born This Way, and he would grow this way. Why? Because on the day
when we are suffering, when we are tempted and we have no strength to stand
and we don't know where to go, One sisters, we can fall on him. We can put our
resting place on him. He knows, He understands. And the great thing is, when
we do this, there's a result of it. We fall on him for help. And as we do this in our
regular life, what ends up happening is our faith increases. And as the times
come in the future, where it might be one of these once in a lifetime moments,
it's these times, these regular Daily Times of falling on him and resting on him
and entrusting things to him. These are the things that build up our faith and
'cause our faith to increase. But there is no tomorrow without today. We have to
live by faith today. And so these these these two to live within the veil and to
know him as our high priest. These are the two things the Bible told us would
help us to live this life in full assurance and to conclude, born sisters, what
happens when we live within the veil? And what happens when we know him as
our priest? Something great happens in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. I am
crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me
and the life that I now live. I live by faith in the Son of God, and the Lord had
asked me to emphasize this. I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me. And
what ends up happening is when we when we go through our life this way, living
in the veil and laying our burdens down upon our high priest who can advocate
for us. What ends up happening is we begin to realize how much He loves us.
And this love, brothers and sisters, this love is linked very much to living more
and more a life of faith. And and it's it's as the as the as this knowledge of His
love for us increases we will be able to live by faith unto the pleasing of His
heart. So that that day when the Lord sees us before him, well done, good and
faithful servant, I am well pleased, because I see my son's life in you. And even
more than that we hope. For instance, we hope that the Lord will see on this
earth people, young people, old people, all of us together, that we are living by
faith and we are returning to Him. This love and His heart will be pleased and
he will say. It is time. So may we draw near to him and have encouragement
from sisters in this. He's great. He has made every way for us. Let's bow for a
word of prayer. Lord, we are thankful to you for making every way for us to be
able to come before you and into your presence. And we thank you, Lord, for
that great day of our salvation, and also, Lord, for your opening the way that we
can learn you and be near to you. We thank you, Lord, for the many times that
you have been reaching out to us to live closer to you. Lord, we pray that our
hearts will respond. Thank you, Lord, be glorified in our days together. And
Lord, please continue to speak to us, 'cause those things that are from you to
be put into our heart, and those things not from you to be forgotten. Lord, so
that your heart would be pleased. For we worship you. We thank You, Lord, for
your faithfulness to us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Transcribed by transkriptor.com