Hebrews Lesson 37: Hold Fast… :: By Sean Gooding

Chapter 10:19-25

19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

One may ask why I have been harping so much on the salvation that we have in Jesus and constantly repeating that Jesus is the only One—repeating that Jesus is all anyone who has ever entered Heaven has ever had. There is no other way. You may look back at the last few months of lessons and wonder if I am like an old stuck record. Some of you will have to Google a picture of a stuck record. But one of the great warnings that Jesus gave us in Matthew 24, not once but three times, is to not allow ourselves to be deceived.

I recently saw a short video clip about what percentage of churches are actively teaching the absolute truths of the scriptures. It was shocking to watch, frankly. There are churches on every corner in many towns and cities in North America. I live in a small town of 6,000 or so, and we have about 10 churches. The video discussed how only about 30% of churches even believe the fundamental truths that the Bible teaches. Doctrines like the virgin birth of Jesus, that Jesus was actually 100% God, that He died and rose from the dead. Doctrines like seeing Jesus in the Old Testament, like marriage is between a man and a woman, and that there is a literal Hell.

These doctrines are actually only believed by about 30% of churches in the USA ( I would think the ratios are similar in Canada). But what really got me was that upon further investigation, they found that only about 2% of churches actually taught these doctrines. That really hit me. But this is why I harp on these fundamental truths; this is why we must repeat that Jesus is the way, the only way to be saved.

  • Hold fast to the Confession of our Faith, verse 23

The phrase ‘hold fast’ is a military command. When ordered, the soldiers know that they are to hold a position until death if necessary. There are countless stories of brave soldiers holding fast to an entry point to a base or fort and paying the ultimate price with their lives. The writers of Hebrews tell us to ‘hold fast’; don’t back up, don’t let the enemy through, and keep fighting until death if necessary.

There is this ‘inclusive’ push in many churches to make the Gospel more palatable to the masses. There is no talk of repentance and being sorry for our sins, no call to shame for the sin that caused Jesus’ death. No understanding that it was my sin and their sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. Just call on Jesus, and He will save you. The thief on the cross acknowledged his sin; he agreed that he deserved to be there on his cross being punished, then he called on Jesus to save him. Jesus immediately saved him, no questions asked. But the man repented at that moment and was sorry for his sin. Too many churches no longer call sin, sin. The drive to get seats in the pews is more important than the truth. More important than Jesus’ death.

Many no longer teach the truth, making the excuse that Jesus’ death was barbaric and cruel. Yes, it was; that was the point. God HATES sin, and He poured out His wrath on Jesus instead of on you and me. But the writer tells us to ‘hold fast,’ stand and speak the truth. Don’t shut up, don’t be quiet, and don’t water down the truth. Speak in love, BUT speak the truth about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection; someone needs to hear it, and like the thief on the cross, they can call on Jesus and be saved.

  • Make Assembly a Priority, verse 25

The word church comes from a Greek word meaning ‘an assembly out from within a city.’ Each church is a local body; thus, we have letters in the New Testament written to specific churches in specific locations. Jesus began the assembly long before the day of Pentecost when He called out several men to ‘follow Him.’ These men and some ladies ‘assembled’ in various locations, they were taught the truths of the scriptures, and then they went about teaching and preaching even before Jesus left to go home. Many people think that the church was born on the day of Pentecost, but Jesus breathed into them the Holy Spirit as they assembled in John 20: 21-22.

“Again, Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.’ 22 When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

You and I need to be assembled with men and women who know the truth, stand for the truth, speak the truth, and hold to Jesus as the only means of salvation. And the writer tells us that as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus, this will become more and more important. We need to find Godly churches that put Jesus first and recognize Him as the Head, not the pastor. We need churches that make the Gospel and its purity a priority. We need churches that teach the whole Bible and still believe in its infallibility.

We need churches that understand that God is gracious; yes, He is, but He is also Holy. The same God that sent Jesus to save me killed the whole world in a flood, except for 8 people in the ark. The same God that passed over the blood-covered doors in the Israelite section of Egypt killed all of the firstborns of Egypt.

We need churches, assemblies that still stand for the Gospel, preach the pure Gospel, and where people who believe these truths can find like-minded people with whom to praise the Lord and celebrate His salvation, giving Him all the glory. I pray that you are a part of this kind of church, one that is eagerly warning people that Jesus is coming soon. Hold fast; our redemption is very, very near.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.casupport@mmbchurch.ca

The Fundamental Transformation of America :: By Daymond Duck

On Oct. 30, 2008, Pres. candidate Barack Obama said, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

When Joe Biden took office in 2020 (legally or illegally), he filled several positions in his administration with former Obama aides.

Now, the fundamental transformation of America is almost complete.

Concerning world government and the fundamental transformation of America: this is at least the third time I have written about this, but things keep happening that I believe are extremely important; they are setting the stage for the Tribulation Period, and there are always new readers that need to know what I am writing about.

>There were two globalist meetings in Jan. 2023 (The WHO International Health Regulations Review Committee, IHRRC, and the WEF Annual Meeting) that submitted proposals to be voted on at the upcoming WHO Assembly Meeting from May 21-30, 2023.

>Dr. Francis Boyle, Prof. of Law at the Univ. of IL, studied those proposals and said they will set up a worldwide totalitarian medical and scientific police state and that every nation on earth could lose their national sovereignty if those proposals are approved.

>One very dangerous aspect of those proposals is that the International Health Regulations (IHRs) will be changed from “non-binding” to “legally binding,” and WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus will be empowered to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, whether there is a real one or not, just by saying that the “potential” for one exists.

>If the IHRs become “legally binding” global laws in May, the only thing that is needed for one man to take over the medical and scientific sovereignty of every nation on earth is for Ghebreyesus to declare that the potential exists for the bird flu, monkeypox, or whatever to become a global pandemic.

In mid-Feb. 2023, it was reported that the Biden administration is planning to sign a legally binding document with the WHO Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) when they meet Feb. 27-Mar. 3, 2023, that will require the U.S. to obey WHO global rules (without the approval of Congress or voters in the U.S.)., and

On Feb. 21, 2023, it was reported that there was a meeting called the Munich Security Conference (over the weekend of Feb. 18-19, 2023) that was attended by Bill Gates, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Director General of the World Health Organization, Karl Lauterbach (Germany’s Health Minister), and others.

Following the meeting, Lauterbach tweeted, “New pandemics are certain. The only question is: when and are we better prepared then? That’s what we’ve been working on.”

I get the impression that at least some globalists are anxious to declare a pandemic or a potential pandemic that will permit a dictator to take over the world and force everyone on earth to obey global laws (be vaccinated, have a global ID system, have a global tracking system, etc.).

They are creating a global medical police state that can force its will on everyone on earth, and it may be too late for U.S. citizens to do anything about it by the time this article is posted on Rapture Ready.

(My opinion: This is a two-edged sword: 1) It signals that the resurrection and Rapture of the saved is close; and 2) It signals that the unsaved could soon enter a 7-year period that will be worse than anything that has ever happened on earth.)

Here are more articles about events that seem to relate to Bible prophecy.

One, concerning the decline of America: on Feb. 28, 2023, Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, had this to say about the failure of Democrats to attend the House Judiciary Committee meeting in Yuma, Arizona, near the U.S.-Mexico border: “Open borders are central to the left’s radical agenda of ‘fundamentally transforming America,’ no matter the costs to taxpayers and damage to the American people.”

Have you got that?

House Republicans scheduled a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee near the U.S.-Mexico border to demonstrate that the border is not secure and the security of America is at stake, and not even one Democrat member attended.

Many of our leaders are more concerned about the transformation of America than they are about the safety of the American people.

Two, concerning an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters at the end of the age: on Feb. 24, 2023, it was reported that since the Feb. 6, 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria, there have been 7,930 aftershocks.

More than 47,000 people have been confirmed dead, more than 600,000 apartments, and more than 150,000 commercial buildings suffered some damage.

According to the USGS, 19 of the 20 largest earthquakes in human history have occurred since 1900.

It is hard to imagine, but Bible prophecy says earthquakes worse than the Turkey and Syria earthquake are coming.

Three, concerning the tracking of everyone during the Tribulation Period, deceit, and world government: on Feb. 23, 2023, it was reported that Big Tech (Twitter, Google, Facebook, etc.) has been saturated with former employees of the U.S. intelligence system (CIA, FBI, NSA, DoD, etc.).

These former government officials have been influencing record keeping and reporting, influencing the elections, influencing Google searches, etc.

Put another way, there appears to be evidence that Big Tech has been operating as a secret arm of America’s national intelligence system.

There is strong evidence that the intelligence system and Big Tech interfered in the 2020 election on Biden’s behalf, especially by suppressing the Hunter Biden fiasco.

It was Winston Churchill who said, “The purpose of the New World Order is to bring the world into a world government.”

It was Pres. George H.W. Bush who said in 1990, “Out of these troubled times (out of the Persian Gulf War), our fifth objective (fifth goal of the U.S.)—a new world order—can emerge.”

It was Pres. Obama that issued a joint statement with then UN Sec. Gen. Ban ki-Moon in Oct. 2014 that said, “Global government should be further empowered.”

It was Joe Biden who called for the establishment of the New World Order on several occasions.

The New World Order is in the UN Charter, and that was strongly influenced by the U.S.

No one should be surprised that the U.S. intelligence system has been working to bring it about.

I believe this partly explains why the U.S. intelligence system illegally supported a man that favors world government (but clearly has health issues) and illegally opposed a man that wants to Make America Great Again (MAGA).

Many government officials, including the U.S. intelligence system, have been putting the interests of the New World Order above the interests of the American people.

Four, concerning an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters at the end of the age:

  • On Feb. 25, 2023, it was reported that the ski resort at Big Bear Mountain in southern California, which averages about 100 inches of snow per year, has received more than 100 inches of snow in the last 7 days (according to the National Weather Service, winds gusted to 80 mph and visibility was near zero).
  • On Feb. 26, 2023, according to the National Weather Service, 114 mph wind gusts with golf ball size hail blew through Memphis, Texas.

Five, concerning the controversy over Jerusalem, on Feb. 26, 2023, Papua New Guinea, a predominantly Christian nation, confirmed that it will recognize that Jerusalem is the true capital of Israel by opening an embassy there.

(More: A third emergency meeting of the UN Security Council since Prime Min. Netanyahu took office two months ago was scheduled for Feb. 28, 2023, to discuss the violence in the West Bank. I suspect that the UN – United Nothing – will probably distort the facts, blame Israel, and say nothing about the Palestinians rioting and killing Jews. Why? Because facts and the truth don’t matter, and that is what they usually do.)

Six, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: the Bible says Israel’s enemies (Russia, Iran, Turkey and others) will approach Israel like a storm and be like a cloud (perhaps many planes and drones; Ezek. 38:9).

On Feb. 18, 2023, it was reported that Russia will supply Iran with 24 advanced Russian Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jets this year.

According to the report, Iran has built its first underground air force base, and Israeli officials believe the jets will be stationed there.

Finally, are you Rapture Ready?

If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

duck_daymond@yahoo.com