The Prophecy of Mary

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We have been looking at the Christmas story in Luke 1 and 2.  So today we pick it up in Luke 1:39-56.  Mary has just received the news from the angel Gabriel that she is to become pregnant by the Creative power of the Holy Spirit.  However, he had also revealed to her the miracle that her relative Elizabeth was now 6 months pregnant.  This situation opens the door for Mary to leave her home town in Nazareth and go down to the Jerusalem area and stay with Elizabeth till she delivers.  Elizabeth would need the help and Mary could use her company and understanding.  Who else would truly understand her pregnancy?

When Mary comes into their house and greets them a strange thing occurs.  It is not strange for babies to kick and move in the womb and by now Elizabeth would know that.  However, there is a large movement of the baby and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. She breaks out in a praise and prophetic declaration under the influence of the Holy Spirit.  Verses 42-45 record this outburst.  First of all Mary hasn’t said anything yet, but by the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognizes that Mary is pregnant with the Messiah, “my Lord.”  Not only does she recognize that the Messiah has now come, but she also blesses Mary for her trust in the Lord and encourages her.  How invaluable this moment, and many more encouraging ones afterwards, must have become to Mary.  She who would be looked upon as a sinner without understanding, had one individual in Elizabeth who understood the miracle of what God was doing through Mary.

Mary’s response to this is referred to as a song because it is in a poetic style and has been used as a hymn by the Church from its beginning.  It is also called the Magnificat (Latin) because of Mary’s opening line of Magnifying the Lord.  However, this is more than a song.  It too is a prophetic pronouncement and praise by Mary.  This prophecy is given in the same style and Spirit as Hannah the mother of Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter 2.

Mary Magnifies the Lord

In verse 46 Mary magnifies the Lord.  To magnify the Lord is to cause His reputation to be greater.  God is what He is and no one can make Him greater.  But we can cause the greatness of who He is to be recognized more.  In a world that has cynically rejected the greatness of God, we need people who will magnify the Lord with their words and their deeds.  Our lives can increase or diminish the view that others hold of God.  An interesting thing about this is that God loves to be magnified by the lowly.  Mary is no great person in the political scene of Israel and, yet, she is able to magnify the Lord.  In fact, God has made it abundantly clear that he prefers the praise of the lowly over the false words of the great.

How highly and how great do you see God as?  Is He only a figment of the imagination of an ancient culture?  Is He just a good idea that is inspiring to us today?  Or, is He the Mighty One who loves to help the lowly?  We can never think too highly of the Lord.  May God increase our understanding and may we magnify Him in the eyes of others.

Mary Rejoices that God Is Her Savior

We can rejoice in the general things that God has done for us all.  He has created a planet with all that we need to live and enjoy life.  He has provided salvation for us.  He has given us His Word in living and written form.  He has made His Spirit available to all who believe in Jesus.  But we should also rejoice in the things that He has specifically done for us.  Mary gives praise specifically that the Lord has chosen her to bear the Messiah.  Only one woman of all history would ever have this distinction, not even Eve herself.  Yet, our praise of the specifics God does in our life should never be in comparison to others.  Even though God has not done a thing of such magnitude through you, don’t diminish what He has done.  Learn to take joy in those things which God does for you.  In fact, as bearers of Jesus we find ourselves in a similar situation as Mary and able to rejoice that God has chosen us to bring Christ into the lives of others.

I would point out that in verse 47 Mary recognizes that she is a sinner in need of a Savior, “my savior.”  She was not some salty sailor of extreme wickedness.  But, neither was she a sinless, immaculately conceived being.  She was a young girl who believed the promises of God and was living for Him.  And yet, she also knew that she needed a savior.  She too was tainted by sin.  What a joy to know that the time had come that her sins and the sins of her people would be removed by the Messiah in one day!

God Notices the Lowly

In verses 48-50, Mary recognizes the mercy of God in choosing one who is lowly.  Now Mary is a young girl who is part of an off-shoot of the Davidic line.  She is not of a family that is in line for the throne nor involved in the politics of the day.  They couldn’t be much more removed from power and influence than to live in Nazareth.  Neither do they appear to be of any great economic stature.  Mary sees herself as lowly in the estimation of the world around her.  Yet, God took notice of her.  O friend, what is it in a person that catches the eye of God?  It can only be by keeping ourselves lowly of heart.  Mary could not control her circumstances, but she could control her heart.  Even when we are doing great in the estimation of the world, let us lower ourselves as Christ did.  Dying to the life of ease so that we can tend to the burdens of others is the hallmark of our Lord.  More than food, and health, people need the salvation of Christ that touches the burden of their sin.  How horrible it would be to feed someone and clothe them and yet do nothing for their soul.  God does not need great people.  He simply needs someone who is humble enough to greatly trust Him.  Humble yourself in the eyes of the Lord and He will lift you up in due time.

God is Against The Proud And Mighty

Next Mary exults that God not only notices and chooses the lowly, but He purposely rejects the proud and mighty of this world.  Yes, He notices them.   Yet, He refuses them.  In fact, He has pledged Himself to judge them.  1 Peter 5:5 says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ “  Also, in James 5 read verses 1-7.   “

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!  ² Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.  ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  ⁴ Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.  ⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.  ⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.  ⁷ Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.”

We cannot count on justice in this age.  But, God promises a day of judgment in which all will stand before Him and give account.  All things will be rectified by God.  Much evil is done in this life in the name of getting justice.  Beware of the fact that the enemy loves to use good things as a cover for all manner of evil.  Also recognize that God has made the rationale He will use on that day abundantly clear throughout the Scriptures.

God Remembered His Promise

Israel itself is a type of the lowly.  When God needed a nation to bring forth Truth and the Messiah, He did not choose the proud and mighty nations of the world (Egypt, Chaldeans, Assyrians, etc…).  Rather, he found a single, lowly man, and made a nation out of him.  Among the nations of the time, Israel was the “slave nation” who would not even exist if it wasn’t for the help and grace of God.  God had made promises to Abraham and his children.  Now it was being remembered as the Messiah was conceived.  God is a God who remembers and helps the lowly.  Even to this day, the nations of the world look down on Israel as something that should not exist.  To them the world would be better if she disappeared or were completely destroyed.  Be careful when you are standing in line judging others that you are not loading the ammunition that will be used against you by the Lord.

May God help us to be faithful to the Lord in our generation.  God help us to trust Him.  God help us to believe that no matter how lowly we are in the world’s eyes and by the world’s measures, God will exalt us in due time and put down the proud.

The Messages of the Angel Gabriel

People have always been fascinated with the biblical characters called angels and our modern era is no exception.  Angels were the original men from “Out There” (although they were not “little green men”).  If we separate the popular fiction about angels that has built up over the millennia and look to the Bible, we find the truth about angels.

Hebrews 1:14 says that angels are spirits that are tasked with helping those who are inheriting salvation.  Thus it would stand to reason that fallen angels have rejected this task and seek to keep men from inheriting salvation.  Although these spirits have the ability to take on flesh, they are clearly not limited to flesh like humans.  It is also good to note that when angels interact with mankind they look like men.  In Hebrews 13:2 believers are reminded to be hospitable to strangers.  Why?  Many reasons could have been stated.  But the writer reminds them of the many stories in the Old Testament where people found out later that the person or people they entertained were actually angels (e.g. Abraham and Lot).

There are only two angels that are named in the Scriptures.  The first is the archangel (chief angel) Michael.  Scripture tells us that he specifically watches over the people of Israel.  The second angel is Gabriel.  It does not say that Gabriel is an archangel.  The description that is used of him is: “the one who stands in the presence of God.”  He is revealed 3 times in Scripture.  He gives messages from God to Daniel, Zechariah, and Mary.  We will look at the last 2 today.  Join me in Luke 1:5-38.

To Zechariah The Priest

In this passage we find a priest who is from the house of Aaron.  The Levites who were of the house of Aaron were a special class of priests who were able to minister in the temple.  During the reign of King David Aaron’s clan had been divided into 24 family divisions.  Each division was responsible to provide priests for a period of daily service in the Temple.  This was a rotation that was continued after Israel came back from exile.  Part of the temple service was removing the ashes from the Altar of Incense and the burning of fresh incense.  While this was happening the priest would intercede for the people of Israel.  Thus Zechariah is a priest who was chosen by lot to burn incense in the temple as a part of the morning and evening sacrifices.

It is important to note that Zechariah and his wife were considered by God as blameless.  This should not be interpreted to mean they were sinless.  Only Jesus is declared sinless in the Bible.  A fact that many miss is that there had to be grace during the period of the Law.  If no one could be saved by the Law, there had to be a way for Moses, David, etc… to be saved.  Thus those who did their best to follow God’s Law were considered blameless by God if they did so trusting Him.  God would not blame them even though Satan clearly would.  We see this in the Book of Zechariah, where Satan makes accusations against the High Priest Joshua, but the Lord will not listen to him.  In verse 10 we see that the people were gathered at the hour of incense.  They would pray in the temple courtyard, while the priest was offering the incense and interceding for the nation.  It is in this setting that an angel appears to Zechariah.  Of course he doesn’t know it is an angel at first.  He suddenly sees a strange man at the right side of the incense altar and is startled.  No one was authorized to be in there even if they were a priest.  This was under penalty of death.  Zechariah is very startled. 

Let’s get to the message of Gabriel.  After calming the fears of Zechariah the angel tells Zechariah that his wife will become pregnant and have a child.  We are also told that his wife, Elizabeth, is both elderly and barren.  Thus this represents a miraculous thing.  It isn’t on the same level as the virgin birth, but it is amazing nonetheless.  This is somewhat of a signature move of God.  He did this with Abraham and Sarah, who had a baby when she was 90.  He also did this with Isaac and Rebekah, Samuel’s parents, and Samson’s parents.  At critical times in the plan of God, a child is born to a couple who are barren and too old to have kids.  The “miracle child” goes on to accomplish something great in the plan of God.  Thus we are told that the child “John” would be great.  Jesus himself later said that none of the Old Testament saints and prophets were greater than John the Baptist.  He was to be a Nazarite.  Normally a person would volunteer to be a Nazarite for a temporary amount of time.  During that time they would not cut their hair, not drink any fruit of the vine, and devote themselves to worship and prayer of God.  At the end of their vow they would be released.  But there had been special cases where a child was called to be a Nazarite by God and they were to stay such their whole life.  This was the case with Samson and Samuel.  They did not choose it, nor could they un-volunteer.  As the leper was a living picture of sin, so the Nazarite was a living picture of holiness: a life separated from the common for service to the Lord.  John’s remarkable life would be marked by a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, even while he is in the womb.  This is remarkable because even in the present time of the outpouring of God’s Spirit such a thing is not heard of. 

John’s task would be to prepare people for the coming messiah.  He would “turn many to God.  It is not our job to “save” people.  But, we can turn people back to God.  People were not living their lives towards God and in the light of His direction.  Rather, they were going towards their own desires and way.  Thus John would point them back to Messiah and back to the Way of the Lord.  He did this by warning them that those who were not prepared for Messiah’s coming would come under judgment.  Though they were a part of Israel they would perish like the generation did that traveled with Moses out of Egypt.  They perished in the desert because of unbelief.

The last part of the message is both a rebuke and a sign.  Zechariah was slow to believe what the angel said and thus he loses his ability to speak.  The angel tells him that he will be unable to speak until the child is born (over 9 months away).  This discipline in Zechariah’s life would teach him to trust the Lord, but it would also enable him to focus on what God was doing and be a spectacular sign that something special was happening with this child.  Of course Zechariah comes out of the temple and cannot speak.  Everyone knows something happened.  However, he goes home.  Elizabeth becomes pregnant, which she hides from public knowledge.

To Mary The Virgin

Six months later the angel Gabriel pays a visit to Mary a relative of Elizabeth’s.  Elizabeth was near Jerusalem, but Mary is in the Northern area of the Galilee, in the town of Nazareth.  The message is similar but has some very important differences.  Here we see that Mary is just as startled as Zechariah and yet is comforted by the angel.  He tells Mary that she had God’s favor.  The word would be better translated as “Grace” and is reminiscent of the phrase, “And Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord.”  God needed someone to bear the Messiah into the world.  This is not a statement of Mary’s superiority, but that she pleased God.  Only one could bear the Messiah.  They needed to be a virgin, of the line of David, and a godly woman.  Thus, Mary was chosen by God.   God is not doing this to reward Mary.  Rather, when he wanted to bring forth the Messiah, He looked for someone who fit His qualifications.  We might ask ourselves two things.  First, what does God want to do?  Second, am I qualified?  God sometimes is looking to do something spectacular.  But most of the time He is just looking for someone who will trust Him with all their heart and pass that faith down to the next generation.  This is no small thing and becomes the foundation for those times when He does something great in our eyes.  Mary is ready because faith had been passed down from one generation to the next until it reached her.  Are you being faithful to the faith that has been passed down to you?  Satan does not want strong believers because he knows that this is his only way to thwart the plan of God.  We can have the favor of God whether or not He does something as great as part the Red sea, or miraculously conceive a child within us.

The angel tells Mary that she will become pregnant and the child will actually be the Son of God.  Furthermore, this child will be given the throne of David and rule upon it forever.  This is heady stuff.  The Son of God is a clear reference to divinity.  Also, at this period in time “David’s throne” had been usurped by non-Jews.  Rome had given the throne to Herod even though he was not of the line of David.  We might ask what this means in light of the fact that Jesus was killed.  Even though he was resurrected, he then ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.  At the cross, Jesus demonstrated his right to have the throne of David.  But, He will not take up the throne until He comes back.  When He does come back He will establish a kingdom that will last forever and will be upon the earthly throne of David.  Thus God will have fulfilled His promise to David.  However, He will not just rule over Israel, but over all nations.

The message involves Mary being pregnant.  Mary is not sure what to think since she is a virgin and asks how this could be.  Now let me make a plug for control in the area of sexuality.  Part of God’s favor had to do with the fact that Mary had trusted God enough to wait until marriage to become sexually active.  So her question is a tribute to her fidelity to God.  How will this happen?  The angel’s answer is that the baby will be miraculously conceived in her by the Holy Spirit.  Though this seems to be a fairy tale to some, take time to think about it.  Mary would have eggs within her.  The same God who took dirt, shaped it and breathed life into it, could surely cause an unfertile egg to “come to life.”  In fact, an egg is literally turned on by the information of a sperm.  Who made the DNA molecule in the first place?  Who encoded it with the information to make a human?  These things are miraculous, but they are not impossible with God.   In fact, humans are learning to do these kind of things in a lab.  Could not the Creator of the universe do so inside Mary’s womb?  We often have more faith in man and his technology than in God who created the physics that allow technology to exist. 

The angel ends with information that Mary didn’t know.  Her relative Elizabeth who had been barren all her life, had been pregnant for the last 6 months.  Now this is important because it serves as a sign to Mary that God would keep His word to her.  But it would also give her a close confidant who was also a seasoned believer.  This young teenager would have a strong woman of God to counsel her and prepare her for the tough days ahead.

Let me close with this.  Recognize in this story of miraculous things that the key is God’s heart.  He wants us to turn our hearts back to Him so that we can be blessed by what He is planning to do.  How often we turn from God to ourselves or to other men.  We trust more in our own ability to accomplish things than God.  God forgive us and help us to see that with Him, Nothing is Impossible.  In the days ahead, may we hold fast the faith that has once and for all been delivered to the saints until that day He comes back to reign forever.

Message Angel Gab Audio

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Today we will look at the Angel’s message to Joseph before the birth of Jesus in Matthew 1:18-25.  He faced a difficulty that in many ways he probably wasn’t prepared for. 

We often face difficulties, but it is very different when we have the tools to deal with them.  So the person who has to go to work in the snow can be more confident if they have snow tires and 4-wheel drive.  The person who is lost in Seattle can be more confident if they have a 4-G cell phone with a data plan. 

But, Joseph wasn’t the only one with a tough problem.  We will see that all mankind had a problem, in fact still has a problem, and that problem is sin.  No matter how many tools we create and assemble we won’t be able to remove that stubborn bane of mankind—sin.  It is not just the sin in others, but even the sin within us personally that mankind cannot remove.  Christmas is the celebration of the truth that we have not been left alone in this impossible battle.  God is with us.

Jesus Comes

The central point of this passage is that Jesus, who is the long-awaited messiah, has come.  This is the moment that Israel had been waiting for since its inception.  In fact, we could say that even the Gentile nations with their twisted theologies and religions had longed for “the gods to come down.”  Thus Jesus who is God comes down in a miraculous way: He is born of a woman who had never been with a man.  Though we might be quick in this modern era to scoff at such an idea, we must recognize that if God can create man in the first place, then surely he can cause a egg to be fertilized in the womb.  In fact what is the insertion of the sperm but an insertion of information?  God did not even need a sperm.  The Holy Spirit was able to activate the egg by the same creative power he had at the beginning.  You either believe in God or not.  But don’t pretend that the reason you don’t believe in him is because of such miracles.

Jesus came in a way that looked shameful.  Though Joseph and Mary were betrothed, they had not tied the knot, so to speak, yet.  For Joseph to go ahead with the marriage would be to confess simultaneously that he is the father and that he was not a righteous man.  His only option seemed to be calling off the wedding in as discrete a way as possible.  Thus Jesus would be born with the social stigma of a shameful conception to unrighteous parents.  Of course this is nothing in our society today.  However that is not to our honor.

Jesus comes to earth accompanied by angels.  We see much activity of angels with Mary, Zechariah, the shepherds, and here, Joseph.  Didn’t Joseph believe Mary?  We are not told.  However as he is determining his response to the news of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph has a dream.  The angel tells him that Mary’s story is true.  As wonderful as that news may have been to Joseph, he still has a tough decision because no one else will believe the story.  However, Joseph becomes a picture of God.  He is innocent, yet marries a bride that the world sees as unfaithful.  In fact, unlike Mary we have been unfaithful.  We are more like Gomer in the story of Hosea.

Jesus also comes as an answer to prophecy.  In verses 22-23 Matthew points out that the virgin birth had been spoken of in Isaiah chapter 7.  The messiah would be recognized as God with us, Immanuel.  But his “name” would be Jesus.

Jesus Saves Us From Our Sins

Jesus is an English version of a word that begins in the Hebrew or Aramaic tongue.  It was some form of Yeshua or Yahshua.  This was transliterated into the Greek language as Iesous.  The name literally means Yahweh is Salvation or Yahweh Saves.  This is the central point of who Jesus is: He is the salvation of God. 

The problem of mankind had been fully explored by mankind.  The Gentiles had continued down the road of creating their own path of salvation.  The Jews had proven that even if God gave us His perfect laws it would not make us righteous.  We all needed a miracle.  We needed God with us in this battle.  In fact we needed him to fight for us.  We were not just bound in slavery to sin.  But this slavery had even infiltrated our mind.  We self-justified those pet sins that we liked and thundered against those we didn’t.  This ever evolving, ever-changing definition of righteousness only protected sin.  This same problem is just as bad today.  We may shrink in horror at a gunman in Conneticut who shoots 20 kids in cold blood.  But then turn around and angrily defend a woman’s right to have a cold-blooded doctor rip apart the life within her.  Over 1 million babies a year are aborted in America.  But few choke up over such infanticide.

In Isaiah 1:18-20, God called to Israel to reason with him.  Though their sins were as scarlet and crimson, he would make them white as snow.  The picture is one of blood.  Sin causes our life to be stained with a stain as difficult as blood.  No matter how hard we try our white righteousness will never look the same.  It will only become more and more stained.  But, God promises to help us.  He says to those who are willing and obedient, rather than rebellious and refusing, that He will make them white.  This is precisely what Jesus was coming to do: to save us from our sins.

“He will save His people from their sins.”  Does this just mean Israel only?  In Matthew 12:50 Jesus had revealed to his disciples that, “whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  Thus Jesus was stating that his people were not identified by biology, or what town they lived in, or what culture they shared.  Rather, they are identified by their desire to God’s will.  What is God’s will?  John 6:29, “This is the work of God; that you believe in him whom he sent.”  That one is Jesus.  Our faith in Jesus makes us a part of the people of Jesus.  He promises to save each one.

Final Thoughts

Without Jesus we have no hope against our sins, much less those of mankind.  We can continue to lie to ourselves.  But the stakes only continue to go higher and we have more and more to lose.  We cannot create enough rules or technology to protect ourselves from the effects of sin.  Only Jesus can.

Jesus is God’s proof that he has not abandoned us.  He will cleanse those who trust him and his ways.  But, how can an innocent baby save us?  Only because he is Immanuel; God with us.  With God on our side we cannot fail.

This Christmas make it a truly white Christmas by putting your trust in Jesus alone as the one who covers your sin and makes you white as snow.

dreaming white Christmas audio

Jesus The Faithful Son

It is easy to think of the baby Jesus in simple loving terms.  However, that little baby was more than just the beginning of something.  In that moment of visibility we are able to see something that had began before creation.  In Revelation 13:8 we are told that Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the world.”  That means that before creation was begun, the Father and the Son had agreed to the plan that required the Son to take on the nature of a man and pay the price for the sins of mankind.  His birth was a beginning but not.  An example of this is when the Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy.  It was a beginning, but a lot of things happened before that which may or may not have been clear to the French.  Planning, moving of troops and assets all had to be worked out before that visible moment of troops landing.  In the same way the little baby Jesus was the divine presence making its own landing on the beachhead of humanity.  Much planning and prepositioning of assets had happened up to this point.  This is an eternal plan reaching a critical and visible point.  Jesus could have been born to Abram and Sarah.  They received a “miracle child.”  However God knew that Jesus’ birth would not be understood and would not help mankind without a lot of teaching.

Let’s look at Hebrews chapter 3 as we focus on the coming of Jesus.

Jesus Comes As The Faithful Son Of God

The writer of Hebrews is writing to people who thought very highly of Moses.  He points out that Jesus comes in a way that is similar to Moses and yet much more glorious.  Thus in the first 2 verses we see that the Father has appointed the Son to be the apostle and high priest of our confession.  As apostle, he is the one sent by the Father to make the gospel known.  As high priest he is the one who mediates between God and man.  He directs and accomplishes the sacrifice needed to cover sins.  Thus the little baby has quite the job to do.  The word confession refers to our statement of faith in Jesus and the gospel.  Thus it literally means to speak the same thing.  This is an important thing for new believers to understand in this day and age.  We are called to embrace the same Truth that the Prime Apostle, Jesus, handed down to his apostles.  If we do not “speak the same thing” as them, then we are departing from the good confession.

Jesus had agreed to fulfill this mission in eternity past, before the world was created.  All of history was leading up to this moment that had been prophesied, a day of salvation and healing for mankind.

Jesus Is The One Worthy Of Glory

It is difficult to imagine the boundless glory of God taking up residence within a human body.  This is the realm of Movies and Marvel comics.  Jesus looked like any other baby, but there was something different about him.  In him dwelt the divine being that had been involved in the creation of all things that existed.  Not only that, but in verse 5 the writer points out that Moses served as a servant in God’s house.  However, Jesus comes forth as the Son to build his own house.  Thus the glory of Moses that Israel so often referred to was nothing compared to the glory of the Son who had come down to build his own house.  Moses’ life and activity was a witness and example of what Jesus would come and do.  Just as Moses called the people to leave Egypt and follow him into the desert until God led them to a Promised Land, so Jesus calls us out of the world to follow him into the desert where he promises to lead us to the promised end of the Father.  The Church is the “house” that belongs to Jesus.  We are his body and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus takes the believing remnant of natural Israel and he combines them with a believing remnant of the Gentile nations to create a new house, the Church.  Those who believe have a part, a share, a portion in this endeavor that has been set aside for them. 

To Reject Jesus Is To Forfeit A Share In Him

The rest of the chapter focuses on the danger of missing who Jesus is and falling away from faith in him.  Let me just say that many get bogged down in trying to determine whether those who “fall away” ever believed or not.  Whole systematic theologies have been built up through trying to fill in all the gaps that exist within the teaching of Scripture.  So I challenge you with this.  Regardless what your systematic theology, do not let it distract from the warning that is given here in God’s Word.  The Holy Spirit clearly warns us of danger and we need to treat it as so.  The word Beware in verse 12 is literally “watch,” or “look.”  Jesus had warned his disciples at the last supper that he was going to be put to death.  He warned them again in the garden.  In fact he told them to “watch and pray” so that they might not fall into temptation.  Watching is not just about looking outward to the world.  Often it is looking into our heart before God in prayer.  It is where we confess before God the weakness of our flesh and pray for power to obey the Spirit.  Prayer is ultimately watching and guarding our heart.  What we are watching out for is an unbelieving heart that causes us to “depart” from God.  We see that at Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.  His disciples were afraid and departed from him.  They failed to stand with him, even though their spirit wanted to.  They learned to lean upon the Holy Spirit and guard their hearts against the desires of the flesh.  We can fail here just as easily.  The Bible warns of an end times apostasy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.    IF we do not guard our hearts and watch our souls in prayer then we will not pass the trials of this life.  But if we believe to the end, vs. 14, we will be saved.  Notice the emphasis is on the belief and not so much works.  Belief will always lead to real works.  But the lack of belief can be masked by false works of pretence.  In fact Jesus had commanded them in Luke 21:1 to take possession of their souls by patience.  Trust God and wait upon him.  Don’t get to over thinking things and desire to go back to Egypt (the world).  We are warned in vs. 13 of Hebrews 3 that sin is deceitful.  It lies to us and manipulates our flesh to self-justify that which endangers our soul.  It is a process that dulls our senses and saps us of strength.  This is precisely what we combat when we watch in prayer over our souls.  A hardened heart will refuse to follow Jesus at the time that it matters most. 

Final Thoughts

God has made a place for you before everything was created.  He even knows the place that “could have been” for those who refuse to believe.  Don’t let yourself be pulled away from it.  Satan does not want you to take your place in the Church of Jesus and neither does he want you to receive your portion in the Age that is to come.  If we let ourselves be deceived and live for the flesh now, it will be harder to follow Jesus later.  God has set us up for success, but we can squander that and set ourselves up for failure.  God help us all to be faithful until the end.  Blessings.

Jesus the faithful audio