Good evening, everyone. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your provision. Thanks for safe travels. Thank you for a warm place to gather, for the purpose of hearing your word. Father, I just lift up to you all the sick people in our congregation. Father, I just pray that your healing hand would be on them, establishing them by your grace, their head, their heart, their whole body. Bless your word as it goes forth, may we all gain something of great value from it. I thank you so much for all these things I ask in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so this evening, looking to the solid rock on which we stand, our stability, our firm foundation, the stability of our times. Habakkuk 2.4 says, Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. There's something off with the proud one, something not quite right with the proud one, the proud doer. There's something crooked from the ground up, false. Paul quotes this in Romans 1 16 and 17. He says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is refilled from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. So the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, from faith alone in Christ alone, to faith alone in Christ alone, and we dare not add any conditions to it, for the righteous man shall live by faith. There's no other foundation other than Christ on which we stand and continue to stand. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, 310, according to the grace of God which is given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire. The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which is built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. So now, we'll pick up in Hebrews 6, if you want to turn there. It's Hebrews 6 verse 7, looking again at the peril of departing from the simplicity and the singularity of Christ. Hebrews 6, 7, for ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation, useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it's worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, these things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. So these things that accompany salvation, these useful things, the useful vegetation, receiving a blessing from God, a commendation from God, or thorns and thistles, the worthless, what's close to being cursed that ends up being burned. Again, 1 Corinthians 3, 14 and 15. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he receives a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. These things that do indeed accompany salvation. Here in verse 9 of Hebrews 6, the writer starts off by saying, that he is convinced of the better things for his listening audience. Convinced and confident in the Lord that they will, by not adopting any other view, as it says in Galatians 5.10, by not reverting back to the worthless rituals and the works, the religious works, the weak and worthless elemental things. They won't drift off course from grace, So keep your finger here in Hebrews 6, but let's turn to Galatians, Galatians 4, and we'll take a closer look at some of these things that are written there on the subject for our admonition, to place these things in our mind, be encouraged, edified. So starting in verse 3 of Galatians 4, So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. So then also we, when we were children, under the elementary principles, the earthly, the natural, the demonic, human and satanic viewpoint of the cosmos world system, we were held in bondage to that. Whether it was legalism or godless heathenism, we were in bondage to it, having no wisdom from above, no above viewpoint, having no true knowledge of God or God's mystery, Christ. But there we were in bondage, even unaware of it, having known no other way. But, but, when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. When the fullness of time had come, the God sent forth, He dispatched the Son of His. Dispatch meaning to relegate to a specific destination or stand on specific business. So when the fullness of the time had come, at just the right time, God sent forth the son of his, having been born out from a woman, having himself been born under the law. Hebrews tells us in chapter 2 that since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, and that he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. That's Hebrews 2.14 and 17. Continue on in verse 5 of Galatians. so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons, in order that he could buy up, that he could rescue, that he could redeem, completely rename, re-identify those under the law, under the curse, so that we could receive the recipients of sonship. replacement of sons, redeemed, renamed, rebranded with a brand new identity. Not a stranger, not a slave, not an enemy, but a son. Yes, a new creation. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. But because you are sons, that is why God has sent forth, He's dispatched, the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Not left as an orphan, but as sons and daughters of the Most High God. Therefore, you're no longer to be a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. So too, thus, this train of consequences, the series of deductions, the succession of these things, distilled down, says this, that you're not a slave, but a son. but if a son also an heir through God. However, at that time when you did not know God, you were slaves to those things, to those which by nature are no gods. But at that time when indeed we were not discerning clearly God, not knowing God, we were slaves to those things that by nature are no gods at all. There's things that they lack the power to save and secure, aid and help and assist, with the assistance that it relieves and delivers from difficulty, from lack, and from distress. They're dumb, mute, and powerless. A lengthy passage from Isaiah 44 highlights their complete and utter inutility, and the blindness of the purveyor of these things and their customers. So just listen to this passage, let it wash over you. Isaiah 44, eight, do not tremble and do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? Or is there any other rock? I know of none. Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit. Even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so they will be put to shame. Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame. The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with a strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and becomes weary. Another shapes wood. He extends a measuring line. He outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of a man, so that it may sit in a house. Surely he cuts cedars for himself and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for a man to burn. So he takes one of them and warms himself. He also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it. He makes it a graven image and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over this half he eats meat as he roasts the roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, aha, I'm warm. I've seen the fire. But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships. He also prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my god. They do not know, nor do they understand. For he has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. But no one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, I've burned half of it in the fire, and also baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it, and I make the rest of it into an abomination. I fall down before a block of wood. He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside, and he cannot deliver himself, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? And if that's not enough, Isaiah 46, 5. To whom would you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we would be alike? Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh silver on the scale higher are goldsmiths, and he makes it into a god. They bow down in deed, they worship it. They lift it up upon the shoulder and carry it. They set it in its place, and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer. It cannot deliver him from his distress. So, they all sorely lack any power at all. Psalm 96, 5. For all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. And have you realized yet that a God, apart from his holy word, is just the same to you, just another domino of man's making? Acts 17, 29, being then the children of God, we ought not to think that divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and the thought of man. But it stands written, all that's written about him. the one true God. So get the Word, get the Word, and treasure it in our hearts. All these things that are said about Him, we, just as Mary in Luke 2.19, we treasure all these things in our heart. May we treasure your Word in our hearts, we may not sin against you. But we treasure all these things in our heart, regarding them as true treasure, guarding them from corruption and loss as an object of great value. ponder them in our hearts, meditate on them, combining them and conversing with them, considering them, joining them together, spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But without Him and without His Word, there is salvation in no one else. There is no salvation, no succor, no aid, no help, no assistance, no relief, no deliverance, no freedom, no growth, no fruit, no stability, sanity, or sobriety, no sound thinking. But we rejoice greatly in these things, growing in our knowing of Him, growing in the grace and knowledge of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2 has Paul telling of his devoted struggle to continue to teach and preach and impart the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding and a true and accurate knowledge of God's mystery, Christ. He says and teaches these things so that no one, so that not even one, could or would be misreckoned or deceived or deluded or get it twisted, that no one would arrive at the wrong conclusion by any counter-argument, even plausible persuasion, convincing speech, as it says in Colossians 2, 5, for even though I'm absent in body, nevertheless I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. You see, he rejoices in their good discipline. He is made happy and well by seeing the order, the proper arrangement of such things. the dignity of it, the non-confusion and the anti-dramatic results of sound teaching, and the stability-inducing faith that they have towards Christ. Faith comes from hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. So it goes on to instruct. Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk in him, having been firmly rooted, and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude, again established by faith. This is the important warning here. here in 2.8, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. So you are to see to it that no one shall be leading or carrying you away through philosophy, empty deception, according to the transmissions of men, according to those elementary building blocks, the incoherent baby babble of the world, instead of according to Christ. Seek to it, to not be led astray by such things, but we are to be awake, alert, and on task with our eyes open, to shun such things, so to be not carried off in the wrong direction, robbed and despoiled, brainwashed and victimized by religious error. Through the channel of philosophy, Jewish sophistry, that flawed reasoning of man logic, the earthly, the natural, and the demonic, the empty deception, the trickery and deceit, and any appeal found therein. Any appeal to its phony attractiveness or supposed benefit. These things all in accord with and harmony with the precepts, the traditions, and laws of men. Again, these elemental things. Of the worldly-minded, cross-hating, human-Satanic viewpoint. not according to Christ, not according to the singularity of Christ. Look no further, for he alone is enough, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you've been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority, and in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. You know, he is the head, outranking all chiefs, all rulers, power, and authority, and in him we are in a present state of fullness and complete. So if anyone accuses you of being anything less, see, note that as a lie from the pit of hell. So now back to Galatians 4 saying all that. Said all that to shine a spotlight on verse 9. But now that you've come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? But now having known God, a general knowledge, being aware of God, having that, or rather even better, having been known by Him, How could we ever turn back or revert to? How could we epistrepho, turn away and go back to again? The weak and the superficial things that have no substance, having nothing to actually attach oneself to. These things are strengthless and feeble, impotent and sick and sorely lacking of any power. in the distressed, helpless, poor, and destitute stoichea, those elementary, inadequate, fallacious facades, those conclusions of men that don't hold water, not strong enough to support any weight at all, therefore offering no stability at all, similar to standing on a million grains of sand, the earthly, the natural, the demonic, the man-logic, instead of the supernatural, all-knowing, supralogic of God. Paul asks, how is it that you turn back to such empty endeavors and futility? It's from not getting the word and or hearing a miss. He asked later in this chapter, skipping to verse 21, he asked, tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? Tell me, you who would choose, prefer, or have the impulse or inclination to place yourself under the bondage of the law. Do you even know what it says? I don't think you know what you're asking for. The law wasn't given under blue skies and sunshine, but from a mountain that can be touched into a blazing fire and a darkness and gloom and whirlwind, to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound with such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command that if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling. not to mention the impossibility of keeping it, along with the impossibility of leniency or forgiveness from it. From here he goes on to give the allegory, here in Galatians 4, the allegory, the son of the bondwoman and the son of the free woman. Tell me you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it was written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai, bearing children who are to be slaves, she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she's in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem from above is free. She is our mother, the heavenly Jerusalem, Hebrews 12. For it is written, Rejoice, barren woman, who does not bear, break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for more numerous are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband. You brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But, as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. So it is now also. This references Genesis 21.9, after Ishmael was seen by Sarah laughing at mocking, making sport of Isaac. That was enough, God said. Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman. Paul says in 29, the one born of the Spirit was persecuted by the one born of the flesh. And so it is now also, the Judaizers, the scribes, the Pharisees, that as Jesus tells of in Matthew 23, 15, he says, even pronouncing woe on them, he says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel round on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. These things are still around, however, much more subtle, much more covert. So we need to be alert from without and within, sometimes even finding these inclinations within ourselves. Maybe not trying to keep a law, but when we choose regret instead of rebound, or working instead of resting, or trying instead of trusting, these attitudes that not only take you on an emotional roller coaster of unbelief and instability, but have you going with feelings instead of mixing faith with the facts. Instead of reciting the facts of the case. First John 2 1 says, My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. So if we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1, 9, Psalm 32, 5, I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. It's a game changer for us when we learn only by paying close attention to what is written about the proper response to sin. Confessing our sins is confessing faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Confessing that he is Yahweh by confessing that he is all we could ever need him to be Resulting in order and stability and sanity by faith So chapter 4 finishes up with verse 31 telling us plainly So then brethren we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman As it says in verse 26 the Jerusalem above us free She is our mother not the darkness and gloom of Mount Sinai But what does it say in Hebrews 12, 22? But you have come to Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood available. So then again, we're children of the free one. And it was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore we're to keep standing firm. Do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery, which is the opposite of freedom. Paul goes on to say that, I say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. He'll be of no use, of no benefit, of no advantage. You'll be no better off. By thinking that keeping the ritual of circumcision is going to somehow make you right with God, that would be impossible. It's not gonna happen. He'll be of no benefit to you because you haven't picked him, you haven't arrived at him, you haven't mixed faith with him. These two covenants have nothing to do with one another, they do not mix, they do not combine, they do not complement each other. Romans 11, 6, Galatians 2, 16, and Romans 3, 20 to 22. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he's under obligation to keep the whole law. So the procedure is irreversible when now you're even a debtor to, under obligation to do the whole law. You've been severed from Christ, you are seeking to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace. You've been categoed from Christ, severed to render it entirely useless, of no effect, brought to naught because no relationship of any kind have grace in law. Who's this directitude? Those who by law are seeking and searching and hoping to be made righteous. They've fallen completely by the wayside from grace, having driven off course, and they've missed the exit for it. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For we, by means of the Spirit, who is the down payment, the pledge, we are sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Out from faith, we accept from the source, fully expecting with confident expectation, the hope of righteousness. an ever-growing confidence in God's Word and faith aimed at the future. What it says, and the caveat being, you have to get it in order to know it. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. So whether it be a handful of sand on which you can't stand, or a handful of thorns and thistles that will simply become tinder used for kindling, your works hold no weight, they are of no effect, they do not mean anything. The law offers no faith, no hope, no love. But we are to strengthen these things that remain. Hebrews 12, 27, Revelation 3, 2, and 1 Corinthians 3, 14. He says, you were running well, but who hindered you from obeying the truth? Hindered you from doing what? From obeying the truth. Being fully convinced and persuaded by it. This persuasion did not come from him who calls you. So this persuasion, the credulity of it, affecting those all too ready to fall for anything and everything, having a weakness of mind by which it is all too easy to be persuaded. A weakness of mind that's brought on by not habitually presenting the mind for proper training to discern what's useful and what's useless. This persuasion is not from the one calling you, that's for certain. Not the Christ, but one who is very anti-Christ. very against Christ and his people. An adversary has done this. You can see that in the parable of Matthew 13, 24 to 30. It only takes a little to hinder a lot. But those that plug on, that press on, that don't turn back or away from the simplicity and singularity of faith alone in Christ alone, have great reason to have great confidence and to be ever more convinced of the better things that accompany salvation. This takes us back to our passage in Hebrews. Hebrews 6 10 for God is not unjust so as to forget your work in the love which you have shown toward his name and having ministered and still ministering to the Saints Says God is not unjust So as to forget your works of faith and your labors of love and your steady production of hope first Thessalonians 1 3 yes We continue on to strengthen the things that remain and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. We desire each one of you to show the same diligence, the same speed, the same urgency without anxiety, the same constancy, choosing the same thing over and over again, showing the same consistency unto the fullness of the hope, growing in confidence all the way to the end, all the way through, so that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. These things are prescribed in order to not become sluggish and lazy and stupid and dull, slothful in regards to inheriting the promises. By getting and holding onto, latching onto with faith, hope and love onto the work, being imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises by claiming them all along the way. See the example of Abraham. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you. And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way, God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath his purpose unable to be changed, and interposed, rather guaranteed, with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. So seeing this and reckoning the fact that it is impossible for God to lie, we who believe surely have strong encouragement. We who have fled We who have fled for refuge and to take hold of, to firmly seize the lying out in front of us hope, that ever-growing confidence that is continually welling up. This hope we have is an anchor for the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil. We have as an anchor of the soul by mixing faith with the promises of God. We stay rooted and grounded in His love, stable, secure, steadfast, and sure. And it being one that enters into the interior as opposed to the superficial and exterior of the veil. The doors scream to the most holy place where Jesus is entered on behalf of us as a forerunner, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, a perpetual priest able to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he ever liveth to make intercession for us. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Father, I just pray that we just allow it, we just receive it, allow it to wash over us and not be overwhelmed by it, but just take note of the passages on display here and May we look closely at them and see these things and just have our confidence and our hope just constantly filling up to all the fullness. Thank you for all these things. Bless the offering. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.