Brother Mike Ministries

The many days of Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011!  
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ETERNAL LIFE: No Longer Possible!! ***

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Hebrews 1:7-8
By Brother Mike (12-19-15; 30 minutes)
   


7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire .
8
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom .


INTRODUCTION
 

In verses 7-8 of Hebrews 1, we are continuing with the theme that Christ who brought in the New Covenant is so much greater and better than the angels who brought in the Old Covenant, and so the New Covenant is so much better than the Old. We see this in that Christ is greater than the angels because He created the angels, which means that the angels are created beings where as Christ is not, but, rather, Christ is the one and only eternal, creator God as scripture declares, and His kingdom is one of truth and righteousness. Therefore, the underlying message is that we should move on to the better and greater things of the New Covenant, and not fall back to the Old. 


Verse 7: 


7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire

In this verse, Yahweh continues His teaching that the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who spoke in the New Covenant is so much better than the angels who spoke in the Old Covenant, and, therefore, the New Covenant is so much better than the Old because whereas the Old was spoken in by angels, the New was spoken in by the very Son of God Himself who created the universe, and upholds all things by the declaration of His power who after making a cleansing for our sins began to rule all things in the blessed will of Yahweh.

But, Christ, the Son of God not only spoke in the New Covenant, created the universe, upholds all things by the declaration of His power, made a cleansing for our sins, and now rules in the blessed will of Yahweh, but He is greater than the angels because He also created the angels. We read, And of [unto] the angels He says, who [Christ] makes His angels spirits; that is, it is Christ who makes His angels spirits. He is the creator while the angels are the created. And, even as the creator is greater than the created, so Christ and the New Covenant are greater than the angels and the Old Covenant even as the Creator is greater than the created. So, by such comparisons, we begin to see why the New Covenant is so superior to the Old Covenant. 

Now, in that we are told that He makes His angels spirits, it is revealed just what angels are: they are spirits. Now, a spirit is a being that does not have a physical body; nevertheless, they still have the ability to know, to desire, to decide, and to act, all the same things that human beings possess in their spirits, except, of course, a physical body. O yes, they can possess a human, or even appear like human, but they are not humans. Rather, as we read in Hebrews 1:14,  

14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?  

So, angels are spirits and servants for those who shall be heirs of salvation, namely the elect. Yet, those angels who did not keep their first estate, but followed along with the angel Satan in rebellion to Yahweh are not servants for the elect. No, rather they have become known as demons and are enemies to the elect and Yahweh, and their goal is to hurt the elect in whatever way they can, and to try and thwart the plans of Yahweh. Fortunately, no being can thwart the plans of Yahweh, and this is why all the elect have been saved ever since May 21, 2011 according to His plan. Satan tried with all His might to keep the elect from becoming saved, but he was unsuccessful because Yahweh is always successful, and Satan is nothing more than a rebellious ant; used by Yahweh for His own purposes, and destined to be completely squashed under the Almighty Hand of Yahweh. We read, 

Jude 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day

And, again, we read, 

2Pe 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment . . .  

But, of the angels who remained in their first estate as servants of Yahweh and the elect, these have been eternally blessed, and will remain forevermore, servants for the elect to the glory of the Father. 

Now, we read in the latter part of our verse, Who makes His ministers a flame of fire. And, since His ministers are the angels as well as the elect, this is referring to them both, and it is revealing to us that He makes both His angels and His elect a flame of fire. This does not mean that He makes them a literal flame of fire, of course not, but it means that He makes them instruments of judgment, which is what a flame and fire are symbolic of in the Bible (this is such common knowledge that I will not spend time showing this). But, we read of Jesus that His eyes were as a flame of fire in three different passages:  

Re 1:14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire . . . 

Re 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass . . . 

Re 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself

This is obvious symbolism to represent that Christ is the seeing judge. He sees all things, and He judges all things that He sees. Indeed, He has eyes as a flame of fire.  


Verse 8: 

8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom .   

Now, whereas the angels are created beings at the hand of the Son of God as we learned in the previous verse, in this verse, we read, But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. This is a quote from Psalm 45:6, and it reveals that the Son of God, Christ Jesus, is God, for it says of the Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The word here translated as God is taken from Psalm 45:6 where God is the Hebrew word Elohim. This is the same word used throughout the Old Testament to give reference to the one and only God whose personal name is Yahweh. Therefore, by equating the Son to being the God (Elohim) of the Old Testament, we are being told that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is Yahweh. He is not just some lesser God than the one and only Almighty God, but He is the one and only Almighty God in the flesh. Just how it is possible that the infinite and Almighty God could reside in human flesh is one huge mystery to our minds, yet it is what the scriptures are teaching, and, so, despite our minds' inability to grasp how the infinite can reside in the finite, we believe it to be true because we recognize our own finite limitations, but we extol our God's limitless ability to have given us His holy and accurate Word. To put it in a different way, just because our minds cannot comprehend the infinite does not mean that what Yahweh says about the infinite is incorrect, but, rather, because Yahweh is infinite in knowledge and wisdom, we know that what Yahweh says is correct whether we can fully understand it or not. He is God, but we are created, and, as such, we should always realize that when it comes to God, we can only begin to comprehend His Majesty. And, this will be true throughout all eternity even though His light will grow much brighter once we have been transformed into our glorious bodies, and live in awe of Him forevermore in the new heaven and earth.  

Let's now look more closely at our verse. It first states, But unto the Son he saith. The Son, of course, is in reference to Jesus Christ who is the second person of the Godhead (see God reveals Himself as a trinity ). And, it says, But unto the Son [Christ] He [Yahweh] says. Actually, the verb translated, He says is in the present tense and active voice of the Greek, and it conveys ongoing action that He [Yahweh] is ongoingly saying. And, what is Yahweh continuing to say? He is saying unto the Son, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Now, let's first look at the sentence, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. Thy throne is that place in the eternal realm where Christ rules from. It is not a literal throne as we would think of a throne, but it is that place in the heavenly realms from which Christ executes His will on this universe and its creatures. We can only imagine just how glorious His Throne actually is as, I am sure, it would be impossible to fully describe with our very limited minds and vocabulary. But, we are told that His throne is forever and ever, or, quite literally, into the age of the age. This means, of course, that the rule of Christ will never end. He rules now, and He will rule for all eternity. To the elect, this is quite comforting because we know that Yahweh is a very loving and compassionate God who will work out all things for our good as we read in Romans 8, 

Ro 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose

Yet, although He works all things for our good as we are told; nevertheless, our faith is often stretched when things don't seem to go our way, and we are placed between a rock and a hard place. Why, we cry out to the Lord? And, He just doesn't seem to answer. So we cry out ever more, and then even more and more. And, then even more and more and more. The result is that we have sought the Lord far more than if we would have immediately understood why certain things come upon us. The result is that He keeps us seeking Him until He finally reveals why we went through what we went through, and, then, something else comes into our lives, and we are back seeking Him once again. This seeking of Him develops our relationship with Him over time, which is exactly the good that He is working into us, so although we think at various times that our Lord has abandoned us; don't believe it for a moment. He knows perfectly what He is doing at all times, and we must learn just to trust Him more and more until we learn to have peace in all situations. Nothing happens outside His will, and the worse thing that can happen to us is death. And, is death really all that bad? I say, no! For He says to His elect, 

Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this ?   

Yes, we, the elect, will never die, but only transition from this world to the next, which is why we can say along with 2Corinthians 5:8,  

2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord .    

Now, returning to our verse, you will remember that Christ is God, for we read, Thy throne, O God. There are many other verses which teach that Christ is God as well. Here are some of them that would be good to go over as they remind us of something that we can often take for granted:  

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son [Jesus] , and shall call his name Immanuel [God with us] .   

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given [Jesus] : and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  

Joh 1:1,14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word was made flesh [Jesus] , and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.    

Joh 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.  

Joh 10:30 I and my Father are one.

Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 

Joh 20:26-28 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.    

Col 1:16, 2: 9 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him . . . For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.   

Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;  

Re 1:8 I [Jesus] am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty .   

Okay, so it can clearly be shown that Jesus is God by scripture no matter how hard people try and distort the scriptures as do the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and many others through their organizations, to attempt to make Jesus something less and other than He really is. 

Now, finally, our verse states, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. The word scepter is normally translated as rod or staff in the Bible, and it is symbolic of rule; hence, it is translated here as scepter, which means rule or sovereignty. In addition, the word translated as righteousness in the phrase a scepter of righteousness is only found right here in this one place of scripture, and it literally comes from the word which means straight, which is a metaphor for right or true. So, our verse could be translated as a scepter of rightness or truth is a scepter of thy kingdom. And, since rightness is very close to the word righteousness, we can see why the King James translators call it a scepter of righteousness. Whatever the case, we are being taught that the rule of God's kingdom is truth, rightness or righteousness.  

It is perhaps noteworthy that God is the Word which rules, or is the scepter of His kingdom. So, we see in this, that God's Word is a synonym for rule or scepter, and, thus, we could substitute the term God's Word in the place of the word scepter, and say, God's Word of righteousness is the scepter of His kingdom. We see this same type of use of the word rod, for instance, in Revelations 11 where we read, 

Re 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein .   

The rod in this verse is symbolic of the Word of God which is used to measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein (see Revelation 11:1-13 ). To measure something means to define or reveal that something, so to measure the temple of God with a rod (the Word of God) is to define or reveal just what the temple of God is. And, according to the Word of God, the temple of God is the body of believers as we read in Ephesians 2:19-21: 

Eph. 2:19-21 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord . . .    

And, again, we read, 

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye [plural] are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you

And,  

1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye [plural] are .   

So, what we have seen is how the term rod or scepter can mean the Word of God, and, as such, our verse takes on a new meaning, namely that God's Word of righteousness is the scepter or rule of his kingdom. 


CONCLUSION 

We have learned that, unlike Christ, the angels are created beings by Christ, and that, unlike the angels, Christ is actually the one and only Almighty God. So Christ is so much greater than the angels. And, since the Old Covenant was brought in by angels whereas the New Covenant was brought in by Christ, we begin to see just how much better the New Covenant must be as well. This should be a huge motivation for these Hebrew Christians, and ourselves for that matter, not to fall back to the Old, but to move on to the New with all its greater and better promises as we shall see as we continue going through the book of Hebrews. 


Now, to the true elect of Yahweh, may the LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace .

1:1-6  
1:7-8 
1:9-14
2:1-4

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