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Bro. Otis Fisher
1. We learned in the first chapter of the holiness of Jesus, his purpose, why he's here, the name
Jesus. Jesus did not exist until Jesus was born.
Now the Son existed, and I cannot explain that, so I'm not going to try, but we were told in the first chapter that he has obtained a more precious name by inheritance.
He has to be a human. We come to chapter 2 and lo and behold, it says, therefore.
Therefore. Dennis, what is therefore, therefore?
Alright, now that the first chapter, therefore includes the whole first chapter.
David, can't you find where we are? Well, Hebrew is not in the
Old Testament. Therefore refers to the entire first chapter.
Might be when we finish two, we'll go back to one. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
We ought to give the more earnest heed. What does earnest heed mean,
Greg? Alright, we give our full attention, this consideration that it is the word of Christ, the great and mighty
God, the wisdom of the Father, that we're going forth to hear, will engage us to give the more earnest heed to the things we hear, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Yes. Carefully examining.
That's right. To hold your mind to it. Superficial hearers lose the benefit of the word spoken.
Now everyone is a superficial hearer unless the
Holy Spirit gives them an ear to hear. You hear and understand this only by the
Holy Spirit. Everybody understand that? The word heed.
Greg, what does heed mean? Alright.
Working mind. Do not follow the popular lazy way of most teachers and preachers of today.
They look at the Bible in segmented parts, each one individual. It's all one voice.
And that voice is our Lord Jesus the Christ. Slip. The little word slip.
Like a ring slips off your finger. Like a boat that comes loose from the dock.
Drifting because of the carelessness which is caused by our desire to have our own way.
It's like a ship that has lost its mooring. We are below.
We're down below deck. We're having a party. We don't even know it slipped off. We've been going our own way until somebody goes up on deck and looks.
And it's all new terrain. Then they realize that they've slipped. Sin causes us to take which road?
The slippery road. The easy road. It seems so good to just sit and listen and I don't have to do anything.
Tempting us to sell our birthright like water running downhill. Water running downhill.
What's that mean, Burge? It takes the easiest path.
Now I want to read from 2 Timothy 3 and I'd like for you to follow along.
Gonna be here for a little while. 2 Timothy 3. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.
Now when are the perilous times?
Right now. Don't you suppose do you not think that everybody that has read this over history could think it's right now?
All we know is it wasn't then, it's right now. And we're closer to the coming than they were.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high -minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins.
Lead away with divers loves. Divers loves. Lus. Of this sort are they which creep into houses.
Creep in. What does that mean, Greg? All right.
Anything else? It comes about very, very slow.
And it comes in without you knowing. And in fact, the devil will make you think it's the thing to do.
Well, yes, only they're not ashamed. They know that if I, I can't just go boldly in.
I can't change the form of service just all of a sudden. But I can by injecting one word and another word and another word and doing it very, very slowly until we're no longer a
New Testament church. Yes, yes, yes.
It doesn't have anything to do with church. I mean, it may not have anything to do directly with church, but it changes our way of thinking.
In the commercials, if you look at what's in the background, don't pay attention to the one there, they've got up in front, but look in the background and you'll see what
I mean. For of this sort are they which,
I read that, ever learning, they ever learn,
Greg, and never able to come to the knowledge of truth, never able to arrive.
I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead out of his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long -suffering and doctrine.
It's not going to be a overnight situation. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves treasures, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables.
Peter was never more right than when he wrote that. The Holy Spirit guided his pen.
Then in Proverbs 14, 22, do they not err that devise evil, but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.
Verse two, for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward.
Stop there for a moment. The word every, the Greek word is pas,
P -A -S. Now we're going to find several words here that are translated the same.
Every is one of them. For if they, or if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, spoken by angels,
Greg, where did the angels learn? And only right then they spoke the mind of God to men.
That's one method he used in the old Testament. But in the last, second Testament, he uses what?
Jesus Christ. Jesus the Christ. He uses
Jesus. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and we'll have to agree that it was, and every transgression and disobedience received just recompense of reward.
It's the same as already done. Everything is finished and they have received.
They haven't received it literally, but they have received it. Now verse three, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard it? This verse is not talking about acquiring salvation.
We'll start with that right there. It's not posing the question on how to gain salvation.
For we know that man has nothing to do with his eternal life.
If this is the right, what it is saying is that there is a greater danger of not growing our
Christianity, growing in our Christian, Christianity. Now let's look at this verse and how shall we escape?
Jesse, if you're going to escape something, what do you do?
All right. So you will concede that this person knows the truth and he's going to escape it.
Make light of, not to regard, just escaping.
How shall we escape? How shall we bypass judgments?
What it means is how can I escape the judgment that's coming? Now we as be judged, so will the world.
If we do not care about our salvation, I have met many a
Christian in my short life. They claim to be Christian, but they don't care about it.
They don't care about it by not going to church. They don't care about it by not coming to study.
They just don't care. I would like to shake them to their teeth rattle, but I can't do that.
If I give you a book and instruct you to study it, but you don't, you lay it to the side, but you know there's a test coming on it, but you lay it to the side.
Now, should you receive an A plus on that test? Why? All right.
You're condemning yourself. What did she say?
It's because you didn't study. You have the book.
Why don't you study it? Now, the main objection
I get is, well, I can't understand it. I want a translation I can understand.
Don't go for that. Yes, that's right.
That's right. So anytime you take the easy road, you're sinning.
No, it's not because you did not study, because you could have.
It's not because someone else doesn't do it, and you do what they do, and I'm as good a
Christian as they are. Don't fall for that. You look at yourself and Christ one -on -one.
Now, what is it that it says? Is that there is a great danger of not growing in our
Christianity. I want you to grow. I want to grow. I want you to grow more and more and more.
If a child of God becomes satisfied just to know he's going to heaven, then
I'm happy. Then that person will have to face the judgment of not taking and making good use of all situations of the indwelling
Holy Spirit. It's like going to Oklahoma.
You get a map, and you plot the course. God's given us the course, but with every twist and turn, we keep running in the service station and questioning this turn and arguing with God about it.
You cannot take one scripture. You can't take one verse, one book, and build a doctrine on it.
Don't do it. You fall into a trap. You have to take the
Bible. I like the way we study the Word.
We study it by book, by line, by word, one at a time.
When you get a letter from someone dear or not so dear, don't you like to know who's talking to you when you start it?
You don't read just the last paragraph and say, I've got a letter.
You read the whole thing, don't you? Several times. All right.
Same way with the Bible. I challenge you to take one verse and study it over and over and over and over until it begins to open to you.
You'll never exhaust it. You'll always find more.
Don't be afraid of that. Just add more. Verse four, and also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the
Holy Ghost according to his own will. Is there anything that happens that's not the will of God?
Well, what about the war? What about the
Twin Towers? We don't understand, do we?
If I could see the whole picture as he does, I'd understand. This is the true purpose of miracles.
But God wants us to bring them to account. He will judge them, but where to judge them in the meantime?
God also bearing them witness. God is the one who bore witness of this.
Both with signs and wonders with diverse miracles and gifts of the
Holy Ghost according to his will. This is the true purpose of miracles.
Greg, are we still having miracles? Yes. We call them signs because they appear as one thing and represent another.
And they're called wonders because they represent some strange and unaccustomed thing.
And powers because they give us a glimpse of God's mighty power. How can you know when a person's speaking or working in the
Spirit? How can you know that that person is speaking or working, but it's in the
Spirit? Right.
If it lines up with God, there's another check. How can we tell when that person is truly bringing words of God?
All of these things come down to this, when they direct all honor and praise to Christ.
Not to man, not to themselves, not to some other man, but to Christ.
When they speak, when we teach, when we preach, whatever brings
Christ, Jesus Christ, as the outcome, as the honor, as the praise is all to him, not man.
Will that fit? It better work in this way that whatever they're teaching that line up with the
Word of God. All right. It must align with God.
You must have peace in your heart about it, and you must have the opportunity to sit there and listen.
When any one of those is out of place, of course, your peace from God will be out of place.
There'll be another one also. Five, for unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
For unto the angels he did not put the world in subjection.
Who was the control of this world given to?
Adam. Adam before, as he came out of the mold of God, he had control of everything.
It was all under his dominion. The word world here is okimino.
Okimino means world inhabitants, the earth, the world, the inhabitants of the world, the men.
But one in a certain place, this is back in Proverbs, I believe, testified, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visited him?
Turn back to Proverbs about a hundred and scan that and find the verse, please.
Read it, Greg. Oh, don't read it.
What is man's gift?
Thou hast made him a little more than the angels, and has found him a glorious honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, and put all things under his feet.
All sheep and oxen of the day, and the beasts of the field, and the cows of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth through them as the sea.
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name on all the earth.
Well, I thought it was 100.
Well, what's in Psalms? Maybe it was Psalms. 100.
Well, what's in either Psalms or Proverbs 100? Well, then it was
Psalms. I stand corrected. Jesus Christ has done it all.
There is nothing left for man to do, even our salvation.
There's nothing. Now, we have to answer for our actions. That's understandable.
Man is a rash on the upper dermis of this earth.
That's all he is, just a rash. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels.
Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hand. Man, as he came out from the maker, it placed him at the head of all
God's works. For a literal translation that goes like this, thou has made him less than God.
Less than God. Now, we're talking about man. Thou has put all things, again, the same word,
P -A -S, in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all, same word, in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.
But now we see not yet all things put under him. That's rather confusing. What does it mean,
Dennis? I'm asking you.
Man does not have all things put under his feet, but he will have.
He did have in the beginning. He fell, he sold out, he sold it to Satan.
But there's a time coming again when he will. No, we're talking about man now.
But we see Jesus. See, the verse says, talking about man.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, which he was, for the suffering of death, which he did, crowned with glory and honor, which he is, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death.
And it has for every man. Now, it so happens there is no
Greek word directly transferable into the word man.
So man should not be there at all, scratch it out. But that he should taste death for every.
Every is the same word that you found back in all things, and all, and things, and about a half a dozen others.
Crowned with glory and honor, that's what he will be. Everyone, it's what he is.
That by the grace of God should taste death for every.
Every. Now, they thought they had to put something there, and they put man.
Every man. That's not true. Taste death, period, or for every, period.
Every son. Every body that belongs to God. Everyone that is born again.
Not every man. Yes. But that's not right.
He didn't taste death for everyone. He should have it for other people, or it's a length.
All right. David, help me out a little.
Ah, everything. That would be in the same sense.
Jesus died. His death accomplished salvation. He would have accomplished moral virtue, accomplished the officiation of God.
It did things for God. It created the uh situation where God's entire cosmos was put back into order as it was for Satan.
For Paul and Satan. Then began a time period where he tried to put everything out of order.
This will put the dead. Jesus put things back in order. That's good.
That's good. Do you understand that it is for everything?
John 3 16 is for everything. Jesus Christ as the eternal logos.
What's logos mean? Greg. For God with God could not die.
God cannot die. Therefore, it must have been the human Jesus that died.
Therefore, a body was prepared for him so he could die. A body, a human body.
He came to this earth in the form of a baby, a human baby.
He grew up and died. For it became him for whom are all things, we have it.
And by whom are all things, we have it. In bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
A captain means what? All right.
Then Jesus was the first born. Would he have been the first if there were no others?
He'd have been the first and last if there was no one else, but he was just the first.
That means begotten of God are all of these that will be with him.
Humanity of Jesus does not mean that he was a religious genius.
It does not mean that he was martyred to a cause. It does not mean that he was setting a good example.
It did mean the following. It brought glory and honor to the person of Christ.
It procured man's salvation by making man's salvation possible.
And foremost, it pleased the heavenly father. That was foremost.
That was first. To die pleased the heavenly father. His perfect life does not save you.
Did you think it did? His virgin birth does not save you.
Did you think he did? His teaching does not save us.
His love does not save us. His miracles do not save us.
His example does not save us. What was it that saved us?
His death. What gave us life? What?
Resurrection. That's right. Romans six and four, therefore we are buried with him by baptism.
You bury that which you don't want to see anymore into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Also, Siamese twins, we should walk with him because that's what he's doing.
We should walk with him. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Now for both he that sanctifies, who is it that sanctifies? Jesus. And they who are sanctified, the us, and are all one,
Jesus, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
What is brethren? Who are the brethren? We are.
You and I, we're the brothers, brethren. So for both he that sanctifies,
Jesus died first, he rose, he sanctified us in him, and they who are sanctified, you and I, are all of one.
Jesus, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, you and I, saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren, not everybody, your name.
In the midst of the church will I sing praises unto thee. The universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man is one of the most damnable heresies, doctrines that ever perpetuated upon the face of the earth.
The universal brotherhood of man and the universal doctrine of God, the universal fatherhood of God.
He's the God of everybody and we're all going to be saved someday.
That just won't get it. That just won't cut it. And again,
I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children, which God hath given me.
Now he has given me, can you find any verse more secure than that?
He has given me, God has given me to Jesus.
Before I was born, before my grandparents was ever born, he gave me to Jesus.
Before there was a world, he gave me to him. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, would you say we're partakers of flesh and blood?
Yes. Jesus come down to take the same. Jesus became a baby.
He also himself likewise took part of the same that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
There was a time when the devil had the power of death. It was necessary for Jesus to be born of a virgin so that he would not have the active sin nature.
Did Jesus have a sin nature? Why? Well, what's that got to do with sin nature?
Well, you're changing your answer a little, Jesse. Well, that's true, but he didn't sin because he never turned it on.
He never activated. He could have sinned, but he'd been no different than anybody else.
He didn't sin. Adam had the right of choice, so did Jesus.
Jesus did not sin. Whether he got the blood from the Heavenly Father, whether he got it from his mother or where, he didn't sin.
He could have. If that was not true, then the whole thing's wasted. He could have sinned, but he didn't.
There was no lust in him. He said, something of this world cometh and he has no part in me.
That's because Jesus did not ever. He was led into the desert and tempted of the devil.
Did Jesus ever, was Jesus ever tempted? What? No, from his viewpoint, he was not.
From our viewpoint, he was. The devil tempted him to do all kinds of things. The devil could lead him to the pinnacle, but he couldn't throw him off.
He did not yield. That's the key to the whole thing. He did not yield, even slightly, even once.
Jesus did not yield. That's right.
That's right. You're thinking. That's right.
Because he revered righteousness and holiness and the Father set him by him.
Jesus didn't automatically take that position. It was given to him by God, the
Father, to Jesus, the man. There is in heaven right now, a man called
Jesus, that is sitting at his right hand. It's in a different dimension.
The older I get, the more I realize I stand on the very threshold of eternity, just waiting until I can pass over and be with him.
But I don't want to leave you because I know there's a lot in me yet to come out.
That's right. Jesse, it wasn't that he did not have this in nature.
He never yielded to it, and it was as though he never had it.
Do you see? And deliver them who through fear of death and all lifetime subject to bondage.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham.
He did not come as an angel, even though in the Old Testament he's called the angel.
That's not Jesus. That's God the Son. And I've got to quit.
The time is gone. Does anybody have a question? All right.
And the fact that it was many speaks to the resurrection which you and I will experience and I've lost my pen.
Well, 17.
All right. We'll probably go over the same thing next Sunday. No, one, two, three
Sundays from now. Anything else?
Verge, would you dismiss us, please? Father, I thank you for this day and give it forward.
Thank you for strong teaching on our other fathers. For help us to understand each day what you've got to show us.