Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
In many previous posts, we have discussed the false doctrine of an off the planet rapture. We have seen the same Greek word harpazo, rendered “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, used in Jude, verse 23, where is described its true intended meaning. There it is translated “pull out of,” saying, “others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” We have seen the fear it speaks of is to make people aware that they are precariously close to forever missing the mark at which they have aimed. We understand the fires are those caused by the corrupted (spotted) ideas (stoicheion – elements), which are the words of the false prophets and false teachers Peter describes in 2 Peter. We understand from James, these are the words, tongues, that refuse to be bridled, of which he says, “the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell [Gehenna].”
We have seen in the LORD parable, recorded in Matthew 13:33, the condition of the kingdom of heaven described as when the whole body has become fully corrupted. This comes by leaven, which is corruption that rises and swells with the pride of the corruptors who worked it into the whole lump. In James, we understand this comes from the unbridled tongues of men.
These are the men Jude earlier speaks of, saying, “10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.”
Jude
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain [“who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous”], and ran greedily after the error of Balaam [agreed to curse God’s people] for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core [Korah, who led the priests, the famous, and men of renown against Moses and Aaron, and questioned the authority God had given them].
12 These are spots [what causes the fires and spotted the garments mentioned in verse 23 below] in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear [making them aware of their fallen condition, and that because their pride and trusting in the words of man and perpetuating their myths, they stand precariously close to missing what they have hoped for], pulling them out of [harpazo] the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
This “fear” is what is spoken of in Hebrews 4:1, the title, saying, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
Friends, these men are the great preachers and teachers of our time, who know everything and are very willing, with feigned humility, to says they don’t, while rejecting correction and leading headlong into the fires of the same trash heap (Gehenna) to which they by the ideas they hold to are destined.
1 Corinthians 5
2 And you are puffed up [swelled with pride in your own corrupted ideas], and have not rather mourned, that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I truly, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that has so done this deed,
4 In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our LORD Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the LORD Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
James 3
1 My brethren, be not many masters [teachers], knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
2 For in many things we offend all [and corrupt/defile/leaven the whole]. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor lists [where he wills them to go].
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell [Gehenna].
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Friends, the LORD is gloriously speaking correction to these great men, the false apostles, who crept in with a spirit that isn’t Christ in them speaking. They refuse to accept the ruling, the Right Judgment of the LORD, which says they must be removed, because they have rejected, and still reject, His correction. He is the Prime, in me speaking for this purpose, and there is no other end but to receive Him as such.
Hebrews 3
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus [the Prime, alive and living in me];
2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who has built the house has more honor than the house.
4 For every house is built by some man; but he that built all things is God.
5 And Moses truly was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house [“as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD”]; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost says, To day if you will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation [when you question if the LORD was truly among you, and speaking through Moses] in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Hebrews 4
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief [because they trusted in corruption – the ideas they learned in captivity and refused to unlearn]:
7 Again, he limited a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
The many time above when this day is mentioned as “To day” when we are called to hear His voice, it is also spoken of referring us to Exodus 17:1 thru 7. Both are quoted from Psalms 95, which speaks of the LORD’s presence and warns against refusing to hear His voice. These all speak of the lack of faith and the unbelief, which cause these men, those swelled with pride and power, to deny it is the LORD speaking. They think their words claiming they are immunized no matter how they respond, because of some law they state, will save them and any who follow their corrupted ideas. They have a problem understanding “To day if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation” – (be not immovable from your positions of wickedness, nor become {atopos} unable to be reasoned with).
If they want to live by the laws they choose to stand on, they will be held to all the law. Hear the law, “Not every one that says unto me, LORD, LORD, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.” They have forgotten the work of the Author and Finisher of our faith, which is to correct us into becoming sons.
Hebrews 12
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. [you haven’t sacrificed to remove your own sins, as the LORD has]
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening [correction] of the LORD, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
6 For whom the LORD loves he chastens [corrects], and scourges [disciplines – see Isaiah 28:15 & 18 below – speaking of those who think this correction is for everyone, except them] every son whom he receives.
7 If you endure chastening [correction], God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens [corrects] not?
8 But if you be without chastisement [correction], whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they truly for a few days chastened [corrected] us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening [correction] for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
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;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For you 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.
18 For you 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 entreated 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:)
22 But you [those who have heard, been corrected, and have becomes the Children of God] are come unto mount Zion, 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 speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
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:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Isaiah 28
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell [Sheol] are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell [Sheol] shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Psalms 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock [from where the word of God flows] of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if you will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Isaiah 13
2 Lift you up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts musters the host of the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Proverbs 6
1 My son, if you be surety for your friend, if you have stricken your hand with a stranger,
2 You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, when you are come into the hand of your friend; go, humble yourself, and make sure your friend.
4 Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.
5 Deliver yourself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provides her meat in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.
9 How long will you sleep, O sluggard? when will you arise out of your sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11 So shall your poverty come as one that travels, and your want as an armed man.
12 A naughty person, a wicked man, walks with a forward mouth [twisting and perverting truth].
13 He winks with his eyes, he speaks with his feet, he teaches with his fingers;
14 Frowardness is in his heart, he devises mischief continually; he sows discord.
15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
16 These six things does the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren.
20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother:
21 Bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck.
22 When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you awake, it shall talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
24 To keep you from the evil woman [the unfaithful church], from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman [their faltering teaching that tells you everything is fine].
25 Lust not after her beauty in your heart; neither let her take you with her eyelids.
26 For by means of a whorish woman [the church that has left God for idols] a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adultress [their church] will hunt for the precious life.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
Psalm 20
1 The LORD hear you in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2 Send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion;
3 Remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice; Selah.
4 Grant you according to your own heart, and fulfil all your counsel.
5 We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all your petitions.
6 Now know I that the LORD saves his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.
9 Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.
