This is the second book

When I worked as a representative in Birmingham, an experience that I enjoyed so much and benefited from, as I was close to the city I would lunch at the Art Gallery. First of all the parking was easy, I could get a nice cheap lunch, afterwards I would walk round the gallery and enjoy it so much, today let us to go round the Gallery of Faith'. Let us now consider this gallery in Hebrews c11, then the first verse of c12 and to finish off with just three words of verse 3, they are For consider Him'

In the first verse of chapter 12 th�e writer refers to the Gallery of Faith' which was in the proceeding chapter, I am only going to mention one character and that is Enoch. Of Enoch there is very little mentioned in Scripture, but I would call to mind the words in Genesis about him, it is said that Enoch walked with God and God took him', what lovely words these are, please stop for a few seconds and just meditate upon them. Now before we go into our consideration of these words I want to do an aside for a moment, so get ready

In The Scriptures there are two brethren of a past dispensation who did not experience death, they were Enoch and Elijah, so what of them? Now as I understand the teaching of The Royal Oracles, one day our Lord Jesus is going to return to t�ake His loved ones who are on Planet Earth, take them to be with Himself, this is know as The Rapture. In connection with this Jesus taught, There will be two in a field, the one shall be taken and the other left, there shall be two at a mill the one shall be taken and the other left', The time when this will happen is in the hands of our Father God, not even our Lord Jesus knows the moment and we must understand this clearly, as taught in The Scriptures. Now, as I understand The Word of our God, there will be, when the Rapture takes place, a period on earth of great trouble, at that time in the city of Jerusalem there will appear two witnesses as taught in Revelation c11, they will witness to their God and then at the end will experience death, these two brethren will be, as I understand the matter, none other than Enoch and Elijah

Now let us consider Enoch. This Godly man walked with God', what a wonderful experience that must have been for them bo�th. In Genises we are told that, God walked' with Adam and Eve, in the garden in the cool of the day', this was known, as I understand matters as, The Dispensation of Innocence', when God had communion with those He created, Now we know that this relationship was broken because of disobedience and God could no longer walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day, this meant that they and God were lonely. Now all that we have in the Old Testament looked forward to the time of our dear Lord Jesus and His Cross work for us, that through Him, as we put our faith in our Father God, through our Lord Jesus, by His Spirit we can then have fellowship with our God and He with us. O�ur Father God so wants communion, fellowship with us His redeemed people, with you and me, He wants to walk in the garden' of our lives in the cool of every day'. So Enoch walked with God'

After that we follow on with the words about Enoch that God took him', now let us think of ourselves for a moment. As we come to the end of our lives here on Planet Earth, and not before, our God will also take us, as we believe, to be with Himself, which we are taught in the Scriptures as being far better'. No one will be called home until they have completed all their work for our Lord that one has to do while here in time, we are all getting older and adjustments have to be made in our living, but we should never say that we have finished the work we are going to do for The Master, no it does not happen like that. If anyone said that to me and I hope I would be alert, indeed gracious enough to ask, well why then are you here?' As we complete our work for the Lord then, and only at that time, will He take us to be with Himself

In the New Testament, in Philippians we are taught that, as our lot here in time is complete, then we will go to be with our Lord, which will be FAR BETTER', one would well ask, far better than what?

Let us just think of all the high spots in life, I will go through mine for a moment, you also go mad and dwell on all the nice things in your life. When I was very young, at the age of eight, it was then that the war broke out, we lived in some woods in the West Riding of Yorkshire called Broc-O-Dale. It was very hard for my parents but we three young folk had the woods to play in, we climbed trees, did bird nesting, in the woods there were foxes, badgers, rabbits, squirrels, wild strawberries �to eat and so much more. In the winters there was a lot of snow in Yorkshire, we used to sledge down the tracks in the woodland - what fun it all was! At the edge of the woods there was an old sand quarry, a field leading on to a stream where we used to try to catch fish in a jam jar - how we enjoyed ourselves! Then when in my teens, for me at the age thirteen I committed my life to our Lord, at the end of my teenage experience I fell in love for the first time. Going on to our twenties, Amy and myself got married and had the children with all that this meant and then there were all the high lights of holidays. Now we are taught in Scripture that as we go to be with our Lord it will be FAR BETTER' than anythi�ng one has experienced here in time, just please get a taste for it. Now for those two words far better' I am just going to put them on a shelf for a moment

So there is the Gallery of Faith and the one who we have considered is Enoch, let us now expand our thinking a little. Go to the galleries' of our understanding, the saints who have gone before, all those who through the centuries have fought the battle of faith, of the Luthers, Huss, Jerome, Zwingle, Wychliffe, Tyndale and many more but let us get that gallery much closer to ourselves. Now think of our lives many years ago, those patient, Godly, Sunday School Teachers, Bible Class Leaders and many more who taught us in the things of God, they are in our gallery. I now have friends who are in my Gallery of Faith, folk whom I can turn to, other believers who one can have fellowship with in the things of our God, so with all these fellow believers we should, as taught in The Scriptures Remember the leaders, who� spoke the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith'

Looking back in our Gallery of Faith' let us now throw off every weight, as Hebrews 12 encourages us to, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us'. If I was to run in the 100 yards, I would go on to the track with my track suite on and over shoes, when in position I would take off my suite, put on the running shoes and run the race with the hope that I might win. Now we are to do this in our lives, let us put on one side everything in our lives that hinders in the life we are living for our God. Then there are the words that mean so much to me, we need to set aside the sins which do so easily beset us, looking unto Jesus, not those in our Gallery of Faith', but to our Lord Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. As we become believers our sins are forgiven, but this does not mean that we will sin no longer, the Scr�iptures teach, and we know from our own experiences, that we daily sin one way or another, need our sins forgiven, keeping a short account with our Lord

In the part of Hebrews that we are considering we are told that we are, in our lives, running a race that is set before us', let us consider these words. Your life and mine has been set for us by our Father God and we are in His hands. Our God is holy, righteous, eternal and the creator God, we understand these truths just a little, only a little as we look through a glass darkly at the moment. Our God is also our Father God and we are His children, being born again into His family through The Cross work of our dear Lord Jesus, the great eternal one, being our Father God, has us in His hands. I remember many years ago hearing a choir from Korea, there must have been at least forty members in the group, they were all dressed well and sung Hthat song He has the whole world in His hands, He has you and me in His hands', this teaching is so true. As we are Christian we are never, never told that the way is going to be easy, in fact quite the opposite is taught by our dear Lord Himself, the prosperity gospel is a load of nonsense, this can only be taught from a very shallow experience, an empty mind and a half closed Bible. Yes our life, including the difficult parts, is set out for us by our Lord, so that we might become full grown men and women in Christ Jesus and we are in His hands, please never forget this

UNow I want to bring to your attention some words of a song that was only written a few years ago, I have the CD of this song and often sing along with it. With this song, the music was written by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and the lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, Mr Stilgoe had I think, some understanding of our God maybe from his Sunday School days in earlier years. In this song I change the object of the desires of the writer and put our Lord there, now do this yourself and consider the words. The lyrics read, Searching the horizons, but did not realise, that all the time she was (YOU WERE) there beside me', as life has been hard and difficult, we have all thought, dear Lord where are you in all this mess?' The horizons of our lives are changing all the time, we are getting older and changes have to be made but our Lord is always there. Then inn the same song are the words Only you (YOU) have the power to move me, and together we'll make the whole world move in sympathy'. We are not, we are NOT in the church, in life, to fulfil in any way our selfish ambitions, we are not here for that at all and I cannot over emphasise enough the point that we are here to serve our Lord. Scripture teaches on this point, 'Whatever you do in word or deed do ALL in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving glory to God the Father' we also sing the words All for Jesus, all for Jesus, this our song shall ever be', may it be so and in The Lord's Prayer we have the words,

For THINE is The Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever Amen'

In Hebrews 12 the teaching goes on that at all times we should keep our gaze fixed on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. Yes our Lord started it all off, He has written th�e script of your life and mine and He will bring you and me to perfection in Himself, when we arrive at that position He will take us to be with Himself, which, as we have already considered, be far better', I will leave that point with you to consider for a few moments

In Hebrew c12 v2 we have two words I have read so many times but it was not until about three months ago that I started to understand what they meant, they are the words, Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despised the shame', please tell me what joy was there in that experience? When we want a holiday, purchase another car, maybe have a room decorated or invest in a new carpet we have an idea of the amount of money involved so that we can enjoy what ever we have set our minds on, we are prepared, well I am, to scrat and scrape for the joy to be experienced, whatever it might be. Now continue to think along thopse lines as far as our Lord was concerned, a joy was set before Him, so that He could enjoy it, He endured the Cross, despised its shame. Into those seven words are packed the whole of the Calvary experience and it was dreadful, please unpack those words in your own minds. I have just read again a book by Jim Bishop called The Day Christ Died', it gives an hour by hour account of the last few days of our dear Lord here on Planet Earth, they were terrible when He gave Himself a ransom for many, when He bore, in the fullness of His being, His body, mind and soul, He paid the penalty of our sins, He, the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of the Father, He became sin for us, for you and me and what He went through so that He might enjoy the joy that was set before Him, now what was that joy'?

I will now just pick two of those joys'. The first one that we, you and I, through the w�ork of our Lord Jesus, will have our sins removed, never to be remembered again, put behind the back of our Father God, separated as far as the East is from the West, not the North from the South as these two points can be reached, but the East and West cannot, our sins are also washed away by the blood, by the life giving of our dear Lord Jesus. Now I would consider this the first joy' that was set before our Lord Jesus, so that He might enjoy it He endured the Cross, despised its shame. Now let us think of another joy' that Jesus had set before Him, the joy that through our dear Lord our eternal destiny is sealed, as we believe. When we leave Planet Earth we will go to be with our Lord which will be far better, just let your thinking go mad for a moment, no more pain or worry, this is the land where we all die, but we go, through our dear Lord Jesus, into the land of the living, we die] a death here in time but wake up in paradise in the arms of Jesus. Just turn now to John's Gospel c14 - this teaches that Jesus is now, at this moment, preparing a place for you and me in glory and that is another joy' that was set before our dear Lord Jesus so that He endured the Cross and despised its shame

I have now almost come to the end of this discourse, coming to the two words of v3 of Hebrews 12, they are CONSIDER HIM, now a better translation from the Greek for those two words would be, so I understand FOR CONSIDER HIM WELL' let us do that. So now let us consider something of the person of our Lord Jesus as we must always do. Let us consider Him in three ways and they all commence with the letter W', they are Who is He', What He did' and Where is He'

Who is He? first of all

John's Gospel puts it well in c3 v16, He, our Lord Jesus is the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of The Father, in this I prefer by far the record in the AV. He was and is the ONLY one, the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of The Father, there was never one like Him before or since. To help in our thinking I am going to use another word about our Lord, this is the word unique and Jesus was indeed that. I have checked up the meaning of this word in the dictionary and it means The only one of its kind', Jesus was indeed the ONLY ONE OF HIS KIND. Our Lord was the Son of God, He was also the Son of Man, we must always, always keep these two teachings together and I hyphenate the words God and Man without any problems at all, He was and is the great God-Man. Just think of two miracles that our Lord did, He changed water into wine, now no normal man could have done that but Jesus was not a normal man, He was and is the great God-Man, He is unique, the only One of His kind. Then take the occasion when our Lord and His disciples had a hard working day, they were tired so went to the Lake Galilee, got a boat, Jesus went to sleep, then a sudden storm blew up, the disciples were terrified, they cried out 'Master, careth Thou not that we perish', Jesus awoke and just spoke a few words, that is all He did, He only spoke. Now remember the words of Scripture My word shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish that for which it was sent', Jesus spoke and the storm was stilled and the disciples said those wonderful words, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and waves obey Him'. Now no normal man could have stil�led the storm in that way but Jesus was not a normal man, He was and in the great God-Man, He is unique, the only one of His kind, that is WHO He is

Now take the word our of John 3-16, the word begotten, He our Lord Jesus was begotten of God, not born as a result of a sexual experience between Joseph and Mary, it did not happen that way. In the epistles we are told that He was born of a woman, in Genesis almost the first reference to our Lord we are told that there was one coming would be the seed of a woman, not the seed of a man. In the genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew we read that the son was begotten of the father, but when coming to Joseph, the foster father of our Jesus, it says that Joseph was the husband of Mary of whom was born th"e Christ. Yes that is who He is, He is the ONLY BEGOTTEN OF SON OF GOD as stated in John c3 v16 in the AV

Now the next point is What did Jesus do?

He came into time, did so many miracles only a few of which are recorded in the Scriptures, He gave a lot of teaching only a portion is in writing, but His main reason for coming to Planet Earth was that He might go to Calvary, in His being, body, mind and spirit pay the price for our redemption on the tree. Let us understand that at any point our Lord could have walked away from Calvary, but He set His face to go up to Jerusalem knowing full well what was going the be accomplished. The Cross work of our Lord Jesus was a turning point in the history of mankind, the teaching of Scripture is that the penalty of sin is death, Jesus Himself said I am not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfil, He fulfilled the law in His death, our God is just, His laws cannot be broken, they must be kept so the penalty of sin was paid by our dear Lord Jesus

The final point was Where is Jesus now?

Our Lord Jesus went through death as we are told in the Psalm on which I have almost a copy right, He went through the valley of the shadow of death, He went through it to the wonder and glory of the resurrection on the third day, met with the disciples, spoke just one word t�o Mary and she knew who He was, then He even had a meal with His men folk. Our Lord must have been with Cleopas and Mary his wife for almost two hours on the road to Emmaus, talking to them all the time but they did not recognise Him, then He made Himself known in the Breaking of the Bread, at that time they would have seen in His eternal body the marks of Calvary, this is good teaching and the hymn puts it well where it says Those wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified'. After that Jesus ascended to the Father, to sit down at His right Hand, crowned with resplendent glory, as one version of the Scriptures records it and He, our Lord Jesus intercedes for us, what a privilege we have, our Lord Jesus prays for you and me. In John's Gospel c17 we are taught by Jesus this important truth, He said 'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word',� so that includes you and me

I used two words at the beginning of this discourse, they were the ones far better', now when we go to be with our Lord it is going to be far better than anything we have experienced down here on Planet Earth, so we ask why?

Our Lord Jesus whom we love so much, who redeemed us in the shedding of His blood, we are actually going to see Him with our eternal eyes, see our God in the fullness of His Glory, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, what a day that will be! The three brethren on the Mount of Transfiguration saw something, not all of the transcendent glory of our Lord Jesus, no man or woman has ever seen the fullness of the glory of our God at any time and lived, now we are going, as we go to be with our Lord, to go beyond the point those three brethren experienced, we will see Him in the fullness of His glory but remembering that He will always be supreme, just think of that for a moment. On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter, J�ames and John saw and recognised two brethren of a former dispensation, they recognised them, to me this teaches that we will see our loved ones who have gone before. Please listen to these words with care, at that time, as we go to be with The Master, all worldliness will have passed away, there will not be any marriage, no sexuality at all, the mortal will have put on the immortal, we shall all be changed. They, our loved ones and ourselves will be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, but one still asks how shall we recognise each other? A friend of mine in Malvern was talking to me about this, he gave me a lovely thought, he was not being dogmatic about it and neither am I. Dudley said , We will possibly, yes possibly recognise our loved ones who have gone before by what we knew of them in Christ while here in time', this thinking is rather nice. At the transfiguration we are told that, They saw no man, save Jesus only', thinking of what Dudley said this will be so true when we get to glory DSETz
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This is the second book