Fellowship Baptist Church Unknown

In the life of the mind, what we set our eyes upon shapes and aims the rest of our life. We seek and we search looking for that which we desire, that for which we hope. But all too often our hope is set upon the shallow, upon the passing, upon the flesh. These hopes that drive us on, are really just a longing for escape- but real hope is not built upon a desire away from- true hope is fashioned from a desire toward. And more, it is birthed from the power of God to fulfill its longing. It is fashioned out of the stuff of our soul's hunger. The scripture promises us that hope is the purview of those who are found in Christ, because hope is derived from and defined by His finished work on the cross. It supersedes all other desires, transmutes all other promises, transforms all other motives, and becomes that which both enlivens and guards the mind and life.

The book of Hebrews has been systematically demonstrating that the OT law is of NO VALUE to save us. Today we move forward and look at the reality that the Law has been fulfilled and its power over us annulled. It has not been temporarily set aside, to be revived at some later time when a temple of man's devising has been built. It is not on hold, it is not on pause. According to Scripture the law has been abolished. It no longer has the power to harm us, to condemn us for Christ was condemned on our behalf. We have been set free from the bondage of the law forever, and no one who ever comes to God will or has come because the law saved them. For the law has ALWAYS been powerless to save- --Galatians 2-16 says -knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law- for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.---The good news of the gospel is this- Jesus Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf and God accepted the payment. Therefore we are FREE-

We are shifting back to the argument that has been laid by the author of Hebrews regarding the superiority of Christ. Specifically over the Levitical priesthood. The groundwork has been carefully laid and the arguments honed to a fine point- and we must come to grips with the import of the whole structure. Jesus Christ is the ONLY path to salvation by His own declaration. But just as importantly, by the very nature of what He came and accomplished vs what the OT Levitical priesthood attempted and failed to provide.-Salvation is ONLY through Jesus Christ.

The final and perfect consummation of the gift of eternal life is hope. Hope answers the despair of the moment, it flows hand in hand with joy and finds its root firmly anchored in the shared victory over the grave which is ours because of the death and resurrection of Christ- The promise of scripture is that our lives are so profoundly connected to Him that His death becomes ours, and likewise, His eternal life is ours as well. So we look to the power of His resurrection as the hope of our lives, the hope of our purpose, the hope of our existence in every way. Christ has been raised and upon that fact stands the whole of all our hope-

God has promised us endless life, and He has established a King who can deliver on this promise. This king must be of a different sort. He must rule over a kingdom that has no end and no earthly comparison. He must be able to overcome all foes, including death... there is no hope in any earthly king, no hope in any king that has no eternal power or influence. But hope is needed or we will fail. If we have no hope then we give in to the power of the grave and the power of the kingdom of men. This kingdom and its King will be unlike any that has ever come before, it will be unlike any that will ever come after... it is the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of HIS prepared and chosen, and Kingdom, the King AND the life that He has promised us are based in who HE is, what He has done and has no root whatsoever in our work.

Jesus promises us the same endless life that He Himself bought with His own blood- it is the grandest and most wonderful of offers, but it must be considered that this awesome gift has a greater depth and power than anything else we may desire. This power of an endless life must have a purpose- And this is the question we must ask and answer- What is the meaning, the purpose of this endless life-- The greater the scope, the sweep, the limit of the life, the greater must the purpose be to sustain it - to attempt to live an endless life with no greater purpose than your own pleasures and desires is live an empty, vain and ultimately unfulfilling existence which will tax your very soul. Significance and purpose go hand in hand, power for its own sake is worthless and, in the final analysis, destructive to its user. But to have limitless life with a purpose that will sustain and propel that life is to possess the greatest of all gifts.