This is us being one with the restrainer (part 2)
Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
There are a lot of sins and offenses. They are like a pebble in your shoe. Don't dwell on it. Simply get the pebble out of your shoe and give it to the Lord. If you are all focused on that root of bitterness then you have stopped running the race to nurse your little boo boo.
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
I heard a sister once say that if her husband commits adultery she will commit adultery. I thought, that would make you a fornicator and an adulteress! Why would you do that? If someone else sins that is between them and the Lord, I am not going to sell my birthright because someone else has.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Again, does Once Saved Always Saved crowd tell you this? No, they'll say this person was never saved in the first place. What does that mean, if any Christian stumbles and sins after having been baptized that they were never actually saved in the first place?! This is a Satanic doctrine.
18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake
This refers to Mount Sinai that the Children of Israel came to after leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. Hebrews is likening their trip through the wilderness to our "running the race set before us".
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
However, instead of Mount Sinai he says the Christians came to Mount Sion, this is where Jesus ascended to the throne of God. The Jews have Moses, we have Jesus. The blood of Abel was calling for God to judge Cain, the blood of sprinkling that we have is calling for God to forgive us of our sins. The Old Testament shows us what happens if we go down the same path that the Jews took and the New Testament gives us a different path that we can run. A path that leads to the heavenly Jerusalem. Imagine how terrifying it would be for sinners to all of a sudden be popped up into the heavenly Jerusalem. We would have no idea how we are to act in the house of God. So the Lord brings us to the general assembly of the firstborn during the church age where we can first be trained.
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
The Bible is very clear, we are to trust and obey. If someone tells you that obeying the Lord with what He is speaking to us is "works based salvation" stop listening to them. They are liars, deceivers. Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light and so can his false prophets. God has made us many promises, one of them is to shake both earth and heaven once more. That is why I have this blog, to examine what that shaking will be.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
This is why if you want to be in the rapture you must have unshakeable faith.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Yes, we received the free gift of grace that redeemed us from our sins. But that wasn't simply so we wouldn't go to hell, it was so that we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
And that sums up what this shaking will be.