I think in Christianity today we tend to have too low of a view of the church. The church is the visible, physical manifestation of the spiritual kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is the church. There are those who are looking for the kingdom of God to appear some day in the future.  But Jesus said, the kingdom of God is near you, it is in your midst.  Jesus came preaching and teaching the kingdom of God.  He referred to the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven dozens and dozens of times.  He spoke of

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In our last sermon, we said that the primary concern of the author was that we do not fall short of the grace of God.  That is, that considering all that Christ has done for us, considering our position in Christ, let us be sure not to come short of the full purpose of God in saving us.  As it says in the next to last verse of chapter 12, considering what Christ has done for us, and what God’s purpose in saving us is; let us show gratitude, by rendering to God an acceptable service which is to be

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The passage before us today has been interpreted by many great theologians and preachers a great many ways.  But by and large, there is a tendency to make the apparent severity of this passage into a mild warning not to fall from grace into legalism.  That seems to be the majority consensus.   And perhaps there is some truth to that. But I must confess that I don’t feel quite so secure in that opinion.  I have a certain unease in mitigating the severity of the  warning that is here.  This is the fifth such warning in the book of

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We started this chapter by looking at  the Race of faith, then we considered the Discipline of faith, and now today we come to what we might call the Exercise of faith. We said that the goal of God bringing  discipline into our lives as described in vs 4-11 was  righteousness.   It’s called in vs11, the peaceable fruit of righteousness.  That is the purpose of discipline, to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ as we share in the suffering of Christ. Hebrews 5:8 says that Jesus learned obedience from the things that He suffered.  And we are

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As we continue in our study of Hebrews, I want to remind you of the theme of the second half of the book which is found in chapter 10 vs. 39, “My righteous one shall live by faith.”  And we have been studying various aspects of the life of faith in the subsequent passages.  I have said it before that the emphasis given in that doctrinal theme is on the word shall live.  And so we looked at the lives of many of the Old Testament saints in regards to how they lived by faith.   Then last week, we

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I suppose that I have been a runner my whole life.  Long before it was popular to go jogging, I used to run long distances as a young boy. I read a lot as a child, my parents choosing not to have a TV in the house, and I was inspired by some of the stories I read of biographical characters of earlier times.  And I suppose from those stories I was inspired to run.   It’s kind of embarrassing to talk about it now, but I had a great interest in American Indian culture as a young boy, and

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  As we are coming to the end of our study of Hebrews 11, known as the Hall of Faith, you will recall that it was introduced in chapter 10 by the words, “My righteous one shall live by faith.”  We have talked extensively about that statement, examining various aspects of what it means to live by faith. And the heroes of the faith who are listed here are examples of righteous men and women who lived by faith. But such a study begs the question, what is the life of faith?  What is this life which Christ has purchased

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  Today we continue to look at the hall of faith as recorded in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11.   And we have spent several weeks looking at various Old Testament characters who exhibited faith, the kind of faith which Hebrews says in chapter 10 results in righteousness,  which in turn results in life.   Last time we looked specifically at how faith  perseveres unto death, and even beyond death, to lay hold of the promises of God.  The title of that message was Facing death through faith.  I would encourage you to go to our website and read

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In our study of Hebrews we have come to the great faith chapter, chapter 11, and the author is giving a roll call of the heroes of faith.  He introduced this doctrine of faith in chapter 10 vs 38, saying that “my righteous one shall live by faith.”  And we have said that the emphasis given in that verse is on “shall live.”  So he says that righteousness is granted on the basis of faith. Then, you will remember he described faith in chapter 11 vs 1, saying, “Now faith is the assurance of [things] hoped for, the conviction of

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