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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Brian Hindman

Refuse Not Him

We're going to be looking in Hebrews 12 significantly this morning, but before we begin, oh Father in heaven, thank you so much for this holy time that we can come apart from our regular activities and focus on you and the message that you have for us.

Lord, today we would see Jesus and we would hear his voice speaking to us, be it far from us that we would ever refuse to hear the God of the universe who speaks to us through his word, clearly, emphatically, and meaningfully for the times that we're living in right now today.

Bless us today, I pray that you would hide me behind the cross and that you would speak through me.

I am but a weak vessel, but a jar of clay.

And I offer this prayer in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Well, I want to begin and share a story with you about Harry Truman.

Not the President Harry Truman that you might be familiar with, Harry S.

Harry was born in West Virginia, grew up, born in the late 1800s, and when he was a boy, his family moved from West Virginia to Washington State, looking for new opportunities.

When he was a young man, Harry joined the army and entered into service into World War I in 1917.

He served over in France and it's reported that he received some injuries because of his somewhat insubordinate and audacious attitude.

Did not always like to follow instructions and listen to what he was told to do.

When he came back from the war he tried some odd jobs and even did some bootlegging during the time of Prohibition in the 1920s, but ultimately he got tired of civilization and he said I want to move out and settle far away from people.

And he found a place on a beautiful piece of property near Spirit Lake, near a mountain called Mount St.

He leased, I believe, about 50 acres from the US government there and began to build cabins and ultimately he built a lodge called Mount St.

Helens Lodge and he operated this lodge for 52 years for tourists who would come to this area this beautiful lake and enjoy a vacation.

What's interesting in early 1980 there were some tremors and rumblings around and connected with Mount St.

Scientists became concerned that there was you know serious volcanic activity and that maybe it was not a safe place to be.

Harry, who often just went by Truman, he displayed very little interest or concern about the volcano and his situation.

In fact, he is reported to have commented, I don't have any idea whether it, the mountain, will blow, he said, but I don't believe it to the point that I'm going to pack up.

I'm not worried, I don't care, I wanna live here, and no one's gonna tell me otherwise.

Well, as the days wore on, and things got even more active around Mount St.

Helens, there were a number of scientific and state officials and other people that tried to warn him and others in the area to evacuate because it was dangerous.

Well, Truman continued just to scoff at the public's concern for his safety, and he began to become a little bit well-known, a little bit of a minor folk hero because of his stubborn resistance to leave when all signs were pointing you need to get out of here because things are going to be bad if this volcano erupts by the way his location I believe was about 4 miles away from the volcano right near the base there at Spirit Lake.

And so he commented when they would send reporters out to interview him with stubborn resistance, you couldn't pull me out with the mule team.

That mountains part of Truman and Truman's part of that mountain.

Well, if you are as old as me or older, you can remember on May 18, 1980, at 8.32 in the morning, Mount St.

Helens erupted in a massive eruption with some 540 million tons of ash fuming up into the atmosphere.

And it was an unusual eruption because it was a lateral, in many ways, eruption, which means it came out, the brunt of it came out sideways and it was in the direction of Spirit Lake.

And so within a matter of moments, instance, they said it was a supersonic blast when the volcano erupted.

Spirit Lake was covered under at least 150 feet of volcanic ash and lava and debris.

The entire lake covered what some estimate as high as 300 feet just buried and covered and so some of the after effects and the remains as far as 19 miles away there was just in the path of volcanic eruption was just level destruction for 19 miles.

And so all those who had listened and heeded the warning had safely evacuated weeks before.

There were signs, there were indications that something serious was possibly about to happen, most imminently about to happen.

But Harry Truman and his 16 cats were never found again.

It's possible that with this pyroclastic eruption that he was even vaporized instantly because of the heat that came from this and the massive destruction that it caused.

You know, from Mount Vesuvius, I've been over there, that's over in Italy, they found, after it erupted in AD 79, they found some people that had been buried in the lava and after time wore on their bodies decomposed and there was a hollow space right where their bodies were and so they could fill the kind of the void when they were excavating and digging out all this ash and debris they realized that these holes were actually the cavity of where a person had been.

And so if they filled it with kind of a plaster mold, they could have the outline and the shape and the form of the person who was there when they were caught in that volcano many, many years ago.

But anyway, Harry and his 16 cats that he loved were never found again.

Sometimes listening and refusing to listen can have deadly consequences.

It can be very serious if we fail and refuse to listen.

All the signs, all the warnings, all the pleadings that could be done were done, and yet Harry Truman failed to heed those, and he perished in the volcanic eruption.

Well this morning, as we look at our subject, found in scripture, thank you for reading that, Violet, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh is an important message for us in Hebrews chapter 12.

And so very quickly, I'm gonna skim through this in very broad brush strokes as we look at what we have been seeing over the past I think I started studying the book of Hebrews last March and so it's been quite a journey for those of you that have been staying with us but in the first 2 chapters we see the supreme position and authority of Jesus Christ amen Jesus is supreme he is God he is Lord then in chapters 3 & 4 we notice there is a spiritual rest that still remains for God's people.

This spiritual rest of the soul, of a connection with our God and our Creator that he longs for us to enter into.

And we saw that ancient Israel did not really enter into that rest because of unbelief.

That was the barrier that kept them from really entering into the rest that God wanted to provide.

Then we saw in chapters 5 through 8 the exalted status of Jesus as our High Priest.

Many people know Jesus as their Savior, but they're not as familiar and acquainted with Him as their High Priest.

And it's in the book of Hebrews that we have the clearest picture, I think, in Scripture of the role of Jesus as our High Priest.

Then chapters 9 and 10, the actual ministry of Jesus in the sanctuary in heaven.

It's clear, it's right there, Hebrews 9 and 10 and also Hebrews 8, that Jesus is serving in the sanctuary in heaven, actually officiating on our behalf his own sacrifice.

As it said the priest would enter in in the Old Testament sanctuary not without blood, Jesus himself entered into the sanctuary with his own blood as the victim and the priest to offer and administer that to those who would come to Him for forgiveness and for cleansing.

And then finally, here's where we find ourselves in the final part of the book, an appeal to faithfulness and godly living, chapters 11 through 13.

We're gonna finish up chapter 12 today by the grace of God and look at chapter 13 next Sabbath.

And so this is an appeal in what we have studied to be faithful and to live godly based on what Jesus has done for us and is doing for us.

Remember there's really in our last time that we studied together which was last month, Hebrews 12 in the first half, we reached really the zenith, the apex of Hebrews, in Hebrews 12 in verse 2, where it says, looking unto Jesus, you're awake, good.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

And so I want it to be clear, as we look at these appeals that are given to us, it's not to be found within ourselves the strength to accomplish what God wants us to do.

It's always looking unto Jesus, who is the 1 that begins and authorizes our faith so that we can trust and believe in Him, and then He will finish that so that it is complete as we become more and more like Him as we look at today here in just a moment with our very first verse, Hebrews 12, 14, a call to holiness.

It says, follow peace, I'm reading from the King James Version, follow peace with how many people?

With all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." When I read that verse many years ago, it really grabbed me as a very significant verse, therefore I put it in my memory verses.

Without holiness, without following and pursuing peace with all men, no 1 will see God.

It's that important, it's that significant.

So I want to unpack a little bit, just in this first verse, what is the peace that we are to follow after?

Does it mean that we compromise with the principles of the world around us so that we can just get along?

We're going to see in a moment a really good definition for this.

It's interesting that the Greek word for holiness is also translated sanctification.

The same word that is used, it's used 10 times in the New Testament and it's translated in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, where it says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification.

It's the same exact word as this is the will of God, even your holiness.

So we find this is God's will for us to be set apart to be used by him for a special divine purpose That exceeds anything that we could think or ask or imagine God's plan for us It's interesting the word for holiness The Greek word is this suggests an idea of being progressively transformed by the Lord into whose likeness Not me but into his likeness now Notice the word progressively transformed.

A continual development of becoming more like Jesus.

This is the idea that we find with the word for holiness.

But let's look at peace for a second, looking at a few other scriptures that talk about this.

Romans 12 18, the same author of Hebrews, if it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all those who you like, with everyone who is nice to you.

Okay, as far as lies with you, live peaceably with all men, with everyone.

They shall be called the children of God Peacemaking and following peace are important.

Notice a statement from Review and Herald October 15 whoever consents to renounce sin and open his heart to the love of Christ becomes a partaker of this heavenly peace.

There's 2 things a Renunciation of sin number 1 and opening my heart to the love of Christ Then we partake of the heavenly peace.

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Refuse Not Him

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