The Unconverted “Believer” (9): Faith unto the saving of the Soul

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Today read our New Testament reading which is Acts chapter 12 and here we read of the

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Lord's miraculous deliverance of his apostle who was representing him there in Jerusalem as the

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Lord is protecting his people as they are taking the gospel to a hostile world. Acts chapter 12.

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Acts 12. About that time Herod the

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King laid violent hands on some who belong to the church. He killed James the brother of John with a sword and when he saw that it pleased the

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Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread and when he had seized him he put him in prison delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him intending after the

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Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

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Now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door were guarding the prison and behold an angel of the

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Lord stood next to him and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him saying get up quickly and the chains fell off his hands and the angel said to him dress yourself and put on your sandals and he did so and he said to him wrap your cloak around you and follow me and he went out and followed him.

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He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real but thought he was seeing a vision.

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When they had passed the first and the second guard they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them on its own accord and they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him.

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When Peter came to himself he said now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel to rescue me from the hand of Herod and from all that the

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Jewish people were expecting. When he realized this he went to the house of Mary the mother of John whose other name was

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Mark where many were gathered together and were praying and when he knocked at the door of the gateway a servant girl named

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Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

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They said to her you are out of your mind but she kept insisting that it was so and they kept saying it is his angel but Peter continued knocking and when they opened they saw him and were amazed.

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But motion to them with his hand to be silent he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison and he said tell these things to James and to the brothers then he departed and went to another place.

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Now when day came there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter and after Herod searched for him and did not find him he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death.

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Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon and they came to him with one accord and having persuaded

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Blastus the King's Chamberlain they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food.

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On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes took his seat upon the throne and delivered an oration to them and the people were shouting the voice of a

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God and not of a man. Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give

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God the glory and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service bringing with them

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John whose other name was Mark. Let's go to the

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Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father we thank you so much for the work that you have accomplished on our behalf.

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Lord we thank you for the acts of the Apostles and for all that they work that they accomplished.

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We thank you for the example that that they have set for us and we pray

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Lord that we would remember these men that we would remember their testimony that we would remember their walk and their boldness and also their failures recognizing that we too are in danger of sin.

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And so Lord we ask that you would protect us we ask that you would keep us. We pray that as we worship you this morning that that we would be focused on what the

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Word of God states. We pray that the Spirit would convict us. We pray that the Spirit would change us.

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We pray that we would leave here with a far holier frame of mind than we came with.

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And Lord we just pray that to you be the glory. Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Well let's turn to the book of Hebrews this morning and we're going to begin with just one verse and it's in Hebrews 10 verse 39.

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Today of course the ninth Lord's Day that we've devoted to this very important subject the unconverted believer and we put believer in quotation marks he's not a true believer or else he'd be converted.

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The Word of God tells us of course that at the final judgment of mankind there will be multitudes of people on whom the

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Lord will pronounce damnation sentencing them to everlasting punishment.

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Sadly however among them there will be many who had wrongly thought that they were

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Christians that they had salvation through faith in Christ but they will also be damned in their sins on the day of judgment.

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And it's our desire and intention of course with the Lord's help that no one that no one with whom we have contact and a measure of influence may be numbered among those unfortunate ones on that day.

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And so our desire is that the part of the Apostle Paul which he had toward those in the church at Thessalonica may the

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Lord establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. That's our desire. So although some of these messages might be unsettling to some our desire is to of course secure the fact that we have salvation and not to trouble you with regard to it.

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We by the time we get through with this we want you to have a sense of certainty and assurance and joy of what

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Christ accomplished for us. Now in addressing this matter over these many weeks we've attempted to state the reasons why there are so many deceived with respect to their salvation.

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That they remain in an unconverted condition while thinking they are true Christians. We've cited a number of reasons.

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First we've shown that there is a popular but degraded view of salvation itself as commonly published and embraced.

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Salvation is commonly reduced to that of only God forgiving forgiveness of sins.

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But biblical salvation is deliverance from all the effects of sin. God not only justifies but sanctifies his people for as we read in Hebrews here without holiness no one will see the

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Lord. Second we've also shown that all too frequently a faulty view of saving faith is popularly held.

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That saving faith is present by simply believing who Jesus is and what he did through his life death and resurrection.

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But we've shown that saving faith is transformative and that it shows itself in the center repenting of all sin and submitting to Jesus Christ the

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Lord. Saving faith is in Jesus as Lord not just as Savior as he's popularly presented.

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And then thirdly we've shown that saving faith is often but wrongly assumed to be a one -time decision for Christ rather than initial faith at the beginning of a life of obedience to Christ the

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Lord and fellowship with his people. Saving faith perseveres through life on to full salvation of the soul at the day of judgment.

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Well today I want us to consider a portion of Scripture that touches really on all of these matters which if read and considered carefully sets forth the way of salvation that we've been declaring and so we want to consider the book of Hebrews.

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We'll begin with but one verse Hebrews 10 39 it reads but we are not of those who draw back to perdition but those who believe to the saving of the soul.

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Take note this verse sets forth saving faith is enduring through life on to the soul's final salvation its future.

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We see that saving faith is not a one -time decision if we've been asserting but further saving faith is persevering in nature and that it continues through all of life and so also we see that the saving of the soul is a future prospect which the writer elsewhere sets forth to be at the second coming of Christ.

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The writer of this epistle was speaking of himself and his readers he speaks of we we are not of those who draw back to perdition.

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In contrast to some who apostatized from faith in the Lord Jesus believe only for a while and then stop believing which results in their damnation or perdition the writer was confident that he and his readers would persevere their faith on to the saving of their souls and so this verse is somewhat of a concluding statement of the author's argument that's reflected really throughout the entire epistle and so we're going to attempt to do something different today.

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Normally a sermon will focus on one several or maybe a number of verses in within a limited context of a book or an epistle but it's our desire today to set forth the message of this entire epistle to the

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Hebrews and although this is somewhat unusual in its scope it's really not an unreasonable effort for the epistles of the

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New Testament upon the reception by churches were probably read in their entirety before the gathered congregations in one setting at one occasion the initial occasion studied certainly thereafter but initially read completely as a letter and interestingly regarding the book of Hebrews although the book ends like a letter customary greetings and whatnot salutation at the end of the letter as all the other letters or epistles of the

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New Testament Hebrews begins in a form like the opening of a sermon it's quite different than the other epistles and so it's very likely that Hebrews was a written sermon that was first delivered to a

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Christian congregation perhaps in the seventh decade of the first century in the 60s

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AD probably the writer himself did not think his epistle was very long it's one of the longest ones of course but he didn't say he didn't think it was long he refers to the entire epistle was written in few words which he considered to be a word of exhortation that's how he described this epistle it's a word of exhortation and so we'll attempt to set before us the message of this epistle in relatively few words this morning what then was the subject of this epistle this word of exhortation if we could say it in a word the writer was urging his

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Jewish Christian readers to persevere in their faith toward Jesus Christ on to the full and final salvation of their souls that's the message some background information would be helpful at this time in history the

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Christian faith was increasingly regarded by the Roman Empire as an illegal and illegitimate religion the official religion of the

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Empire was paganism with its pantheon of gods and goddesses however Rome had long permitted freedom for the

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Jewish communities to practice their faith there were Jewish synagogues large Jewish synagogues in many of the cities throughout the

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Roman Empire and for the first decades of the Christian era after the resurrection of Christ churches were comprised mostly of Jewish people and therefore

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Rome viewed Christianity as permissible as long as it was viewed as an extension or offshoot of Judaism but as Christianity spread throughout the

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Roman world and it became dominated by Gentile Christians and as the Jewish leadership sought to distance

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Judaism from Christianity often in official context Rome increasingly viewed

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Christianity as an illegal religion and so persecution of Christians and their churches increased as the decades passed and by the time of the writing of the

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Hebrews the confiscation of property and the forfeiture of livelihood had already occurred for Christians and so the temptation was for Jewish Christians to abandon their claim to believe on Jesus as their

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Messiah and return to embrace fully and practice only the Jews religion for they thought they could do so and yet continue in favor with God after all they knew that God had created and sanctioned the

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Old Testament Jewish religion well the writer of this epistle gave forth exhortation to his

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Jewish Christian readers that they must continue to believe in Jesus Christ if they were to abandon their faith and to deny

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Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior they would forfeit any hope of salvation they must persevere in their faith in Jesus Christ if they hope to be saved if they hope to inherit everlasting life and so as the argument of the epistle unfolds the writer showed forth the superiority of Jesus Christ and what he

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Christ gives to believers that far outstrips anything that previous Jewish generations received or enjoyed from God he showed that though God had originated and revealed all that had formerly been believed and practiced by the

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Jews God himself had been moving forward in history God had arrived at his ages -long purpose to bring into reality the

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Christian faith of the New Testament that which had existed before was preparatory for the present realization through Jesus Christ there is fulfillment and finality in Jesus Christ who superseded all that had gone on before come before and therefore abandoning

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Jesus Christ and going back was not an option one must continue in faith in Christ overcoming all obstacles and enduring every trial that might prevent them from persevering in faith in Jesus Christ because only those who persevere in faith are true believers who will inherit all the promises that God has given through Christ that is salvation and all that it encompasses now let me say a word about this very important matter of perseverance one of the five doctrines of the historic

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Protestant faith the Reformed faith is the fifth point which is the perseverance of the

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Saints it is a biblical truth that the Lord will preserve his people by grace throughout life on to their final salvation and so here is a good definition of this biblical doctrine those who are the elect of God who are recipients of God's effectual call having been regenerated by the

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Holy Spirit led to repent of sin and believe on Christ for salvation shall never fall away so as to perish now they can backslide but they can't fall away permanently but will be kept by the power of God unto salvation which is reserved for them in heaven

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God will enable all true Christians to persevere in the faith

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God guards and secures his people in that they are kept by the power of God you don't keep yourself in salvation

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God keeps you in salvation by his power through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time true

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Christians can never fall away God will not permit that to occur God has promised

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I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them good but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me there is your promise of perseverance and we can multiply the verses that speak to that a true

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Christian can never become a non -christian can never lose his salvation but there are actually two aspects to this doctrine of perseverance one is

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God's responsibility which we just recited and that God himself has promised and is committed to enable his elect to persevere in faith throughout life but the other is the believers responsibility and that he is to guard himself and keep himself in faith and obedience throughout life and of course the perseverance on the part of believers can and will only occur because of the grace of God at work in them as we've already said the

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Lord will give grace to enable his people to persevere nevertheless it's their responsibility it's your responsibility to cleave to him in faith you must do it so the righteous will hold to his way as the

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Scriptures say and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger this is the grace of God working in his people

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God moves his people enabling them to embrace the promises of Scripture while they also heed the warnings of Scripture and so through these two means the promises and warnings of God his people continue in their faith onto their final and full salvation and the book of Hebrews contains both promises and warnings of God so that his people will continue in their faith and so the

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Christian is to believe and to follow to obey to embrace the promises of God and the warnings of God taking them to heart so they can live in persevering faith and thereby inherit all the promises of God in Jesus Christ now as we stand back and look at the entire epistle of Hebrews it may be analyzed according to seven major sections these include first the finality of Christianity I'm not going to repeat the verses there but you have them in your notes second the true home of the people of God the third division is the high priesthood of Jesus Christ the fourth the priestly order of Melchizedek fifth the covenant sanctuary and sacrifices six the call to worship faith and perseverance and seventh last including exhortation and prayer but in addition to these seven major divisions of the epistle there are four places in which the author pauses from addressing his subject setting forth his argument in order to declare a direct admonition to his readers as to their responsibility they're like little interjections of a word of caution or warning they are sharply worded warnings to persevere in faith in Jesus Christ unto salvation and so these war for warning passages sometimes they're referred to as paranetic passages the adjective paranetic means a word of application direct application these four warning passages include first the gospel in the law chapter 2 second the rejection of Jesus more serious than the rejection of Moses chapter 3 third spiritually immaturity is addressed chapter 5 and then forth the willful sin of apostasy and that is where we pulled our first verse from that portion of Hebrews 10 and so let's work through this epistle and as we do we'll give special attention to these four warning passages that God has given us in his holy word so first the finality of Christianity chapter 1 verse 1 through chapter 2 verse 18 the writer began his epistle by declaring that God has given to his people the full and final revelation of himself and his purposes through Jesus Christ in doing so he declares the legitimacy of the truth of God contained in the

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Hebrew Scriptures our Old Testament but that through Jesus Christ God has revealed himself much more thoroughly and completely

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God has brought the salvation that he had long promised through the death resurrection and exaltation of his son and so here's

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Hebrews 1 1 through 4 it's a very by the way high literary

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Greek it would have served well as an introductory statement at the beginning of a sermon in a

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Jewish synagogue or a Christian church God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world's who being the brightness of his glory in the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high having become so much better than the angels as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they the writer acknowledged that God had revealed his word in the past he had spoken he had spoken to the

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Jewish patriarchs to his prophets and God had given the spokesman the ability to communicate his will his ways his word to his people and yet as true and valid as God's message was through them

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God's revelation of himself through his son Jesus Christ far surpassed what he had revealed through those prophets in the

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Old Testament the revelation of Jesus Christ is much fuller and it's complete over what went before the quality and finality of God's revelation was far superior that came through his son

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Jesus Christ he sets forth Christ as God's eternal son who was with him in the beginning through whom

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God had created the world and to whom God promised that he would inherit all things and the writer shows both the superior quality and the finality of God's revelation of his word through Jesus Christ and what is implied here and it stated overtly later to reject

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Jesus Christ and return to the Jews religion as set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures is to reject really the fullness and fulfillment of all that God had promised to his people through the

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Hebrew Scriptures the Old Testament pointed to and sought realization in Christ the

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Son of God and so to use a metaphor later found in the book it would be turning from the substance of things in Jesus Christ to the shadows of those things in the

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Old Testament Scriptures the writer then set forth the glory of the person of the

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Lord Jesus as the eternal Son of God and he did so with particular emphasis on the superior nature and authority of the

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Son of God over the angels whereas the holy angels were ministers and messengers on behalf of God God had exalted his son to be king over an everlasting kingdom and so he wrote the beginning wrote beginning with verse 5 for to which of the angels did he ever say and the rhetorical response is none of them you are my son today

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I have begotten you this is a quoted verse elsewhere in the New Testament referring to his resurrection and again

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I will be to him a father he should be to me a son but he again brings the firstborn into the world he says let all the angels of God worship him and of the angels he says who makes his angel spirits as ministers a flame of fire yeah they were wonderful they were glorious but in contrast to the son he says much more

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I'm paraphrasing your throne O God we read that earlier in Psalm 45 didn't we your throne

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O God is forever and ever that's one of the clearest statements of Jesus's deity in the New Testament your throne

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O God is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom you've loved righteousness hated lawlessness therefore

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God your God that's God the Father has anointed you that's his son with the oil of gladness more than your companions and so he was exalted even above the angels the question needs to be answered why did the writer give so much emphasis to Jesus Christ to be far above the angels and it's because the

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Jews believed that much if not most of the Mosaic law had been delivered by God to them through the ministration of angels yeah

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God spoke through Moses but much of the information that God gave to Moses was through the mediation of angels and Stephen declares this back in Acts 7 and so Jesus is shown to be vastly superior to the angels to prove that God's revelation of his word through Jesus is far greater than the law that had been delivered to the people by angels that's his whole point and so if these

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Jewish Christians abandoned Jesus Christ and returned to believing and practicing the law as delivered through Moses they would be returning to a system of faith and practice that although is legitimate and authoritatively given by God was but preparatory and of less importance and relevance than the gospel of Jesus Christ that they would be abandoning well it's after he makes his case that the writer inserts a warning and here is where we come to the first of four words of admonition or exhortation and it's set forth in Hebrews 2 1 through 4 it is the implication and the application of what he had set forth regarding the full revelation of God through Jesus Christ here it is therefore we he knows he includes himself the writer the

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Christian therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away things we've heard is about Christ through the

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Apostles for if the word spoken through the angels prove steadfast that law of Moses and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward punishment of death how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at first began to be spoken by the

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Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him the Apostles God also buried witness both with signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the

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Holy Spirit according to his own will those miracles and signs of the Apostles authenticated their witness that they were true spokesmen on behalf of the

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Lord and so the writer compares and contrast a great accountability that the

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Jews had toward God's law with the great privilege that Christians have toward that which

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God has revealed through Jesus Christ he cautioned his readers about departing from this truth and returning to pre -christian

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Jewish faith and practice God had progressed and passed beyond what he had formally revealed to his people but now they'd better be watchful and careful and using the analogy of a boat unwittingly drifting past a safe harbor entrance the writer warned his readers not to allow themselves to drift away from the safe mooring that's in Jesus Christ to do so would be far greater peril to their eternal well -being that even the apostates to the

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Mosaic law had encountered if the law of God required execution of everyone who defied and rebelled against Mosaic law in the days of Israel the punishment of God will be much more severe for those who neglect or turn away from Jesus Christ and this is especially true since God so amply testified to the legitimacy of his truth through Christ and his

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Apostles by the miracles of the Holy Spirit who enabled them to perform these miracles

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God had stamped authenticity regarding his Apostles and their message and he'll hold severely accountable those who turn from that which he is so graciously revealed to them so the writer urged him to repent of their thoughts of defection they could be assured that God would forgive them of their unbelief if they repented and continued to believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ God had exalted him to his very throne the Lord himself would be sympathetic with them in their weakness for he

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Jesus underwent similar temptations in which he was threatened faced great difficulty and even suffered death and therefore he is able to come to the aid of his people when they are tempted and when you're tempted to walk away from the faith the

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Lord Jesus knows what kind of difficulty you're enduring and he's able to help you to get through it.

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Well now we come to the second major section of the epistle the true home of the people of God chapter 3 through verse 13 of chapter 4 this next major section compares in contrast the promised land held forth in to Israel in the

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Old Testament and heaven which is the true home of the people of God the writer first declares

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Jesus Christ worthy of far greater glory than even Moses as great as he was the comparative glory of each one may be assessed in the light of the house of God that is the household or family of God to which each of them were associated both

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Moses and Jesus Moses was faithful in all of God's house he was a faithful servant or steward as God had appointed him but Jesus Christ is the actual builder and owner of the house of God and so the implication is that devotion and commitment to Jesus Christ superseded obligation to Moses and the covenant which

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God had enacted with Israel through him and so here's Hebrews 3 verses 1 through 6 therefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling that's effectual calling consider the apostle and high priest of our confession

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Christ Jesus apostle means one sent God the Father sent him and he's a high priest who is faithful to him that is the father who appointed him as Moses also is faithful in all his house for this one

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Christ has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house for every house is built by someone but he who built all things is

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God and Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken of spoken afterward but Christ as a son over his own house whose house are we and notice this conditional sentence whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end you have to continue in faith temporary believers do not have salvation the writer then urged his readers not to reject following Jesus Christ which was the which was unbelief in him if the first generation of Israelites who had rejected

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Moses due to unbelief suffered the fortune forfeiture of entering the land that God had promised to them remember they were consigned to wilderness wandering and death for 40 years how much greater tragedy would be for those who forsake their faith and following Jesus who would lead them to a far greater homeland heaven and this brings us to the second word of exhortation a word of admonition in chapter 3 verses 7 through 19 this is the longest of the four therefore as the

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Holy Spirit says today if you will hear his voice I want to interject this

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God doesn't speak through prophets today God doesn't reveal his will or word to through dreams or visions but God does still speak to us the writer is quoting the

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Old Testament written a thousand years before but he says the Holy Spirit says to us and then quotes Old Testament scripture and the

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Holy Spirit speaking to us today as we quote scripture this is how God speaks to his people the

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Holy Spirit says not said once said will say the Holy Spirit says to us today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion and the day of trial in the wilderness when your fathers tested me tried me saw my works forty years and therefore

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I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart and they have not known my way so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest beware brethren lest there be in any of you

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Christians an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God but exhort one another daily this is what we're debating as Christians this is why it's broken down in the last year where we haven't been able to have the kind of one -on -one fellowship with one another we're to exhort one another daily this is one of the means of grace that God has given us exhort one another daily lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin sin will deceive you unless you have a

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Christian brothers and sisters exhorting you for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end lifelong faith not a one -time decision well it said today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion as they did back then under Moses for who having heard rebelled indeed was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses now with whom was he got angry forty years was it not with those who sinned whose corpses felled in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest the promised land but to those who did not obey so we see they could not enter in because of unbelief and so here in this second or that in this warning passage this admonition we have this absolute necessity to persevere in faith to Jesus Christ in order to have salvation verse 14 we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end well with chapter 4 the writer continues his appeal he reasons that the

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Old Testament promised was the promised rest for the people of God after they had labored hard and long under Egyptian bondage but the writer then argued that the land of Canaan was but a foreshadowing of the true land of rest that God promised his people the true rest for the people of God is heaven in which they would dwell as God's people in the presence of God the

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Israelites had forfeited their entrance into the earthly promised land through unbelief which was shown in their disobedience and professing

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Christians will forfeit their entrance into heaven if they abandon Jesus Christ Christians should take heed to persevere in their faith in following Jesus Christ or they'll forfeit entering their heaven rest just as the unbelieving

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Israelites of that first generation out of Egypt had failed to enter their earthly rest and so here's

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Hebrews 4 1 through 5 therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them but the word that they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith and those who heard it for we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said so I swore my wrath they shall not enter my rest and then after proving from the

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Old Testament scriptures that Joshua had not really brought God's people into their true land of promise their promised rest the writer proved from scripture he quoted

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David who hundreds of years later spoke of another rest he quoted David from the

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Psalms proving there was yet a true promise rest before professing

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Christians to which the Lord Jesus would bring them if they continued to follow him in faith we won't read that passage but it's it's identified there and this brings us to the third major section of the epistle in which we read of the high priesthood of Christ this is a longer section going from chapter 4 verse 14 through chapter 6 20 well knowing the difficulty and continuing in faith in the face of what threatened them the writer encourages readers that God's grace was available to help them you can't do it by yourself obviously and so it's at this point he introduces

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Jesus as the true high priest of God's people so here's Hebrews 4 14 through 16 seen then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens

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Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession he gives the reason why for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us in our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need when you're struggling in the

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Christian life and you realize you're not gonna make it unless the Lord gives you help it's because of Jesus Christ high priesthood that he's able to give you the

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Holy Spirit and he's able to pray to the Father on your behalf to see you through it he'll give you whatever grace you need to get you through it in your time of need and so Jesus was able to was able to enable them to overcome whatever threatened their faith in him because he was their high priest who could secure

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God's grace to help them but did Jesus qualify to be a high priest to God's people again the writers writing to Jewish people so the writer set forth in his case of Jesus as a high priest that indeed

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Jesus was well suited to be a high priest he showed that Jesus met these qualifications he laid down the qualifications of every high priest in Hebrews 5 1 through 4 and then in verses 5 through 10 he proved that Jesus met these qualifications he declared that God had called

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Jesus to be a high priest of his people Jesus didn't take it upon himself the Father called him to be high priest you are forever a priest after the order of Melchizedek Psalm 110 was a prophecy given of Christ the writer declared in chapter 5

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Hebrews 5 5 through 10 so also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest but it was he the

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Father who said to him Jesus you are my son today I've begotten you again speaking of his resurrection he also says in another place you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek Jesus is not only

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King but he's a king priest who in the days of his flesh when he'd offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him the

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Father was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear though he was a son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered and having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him faith always is shown forth in obedience called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you become dull of hearing so the writer here identified

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Christ as a high priest after the order the Old Testament person of Melchizedek he knew this claim was going to be a problem for them these

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Jewish Christians he desired to explain more fully how this could be true but he hesitated because of their spiritual immaturity the subject therefore brought up the third word of admonition which is

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Hebrews 5 12 through 14 and this is a rebuke to immature

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Christians who should be farther along than they are because they've been in the Lord for some time the writer rebuked his readers for their inability to understand spiritual truth they were guilty culpable in this for they had been

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Christians for quite some time and should have been farther advanced in the faith and capable of understanding and so it's a word of admonition it's a it's a he's rebuking them for though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God you've come to need milk and not solid food for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a baby in Christ but solid food the meaty stuff understanding

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Christ as a priest after the order of Eliezer that solid food belongs to those who are a full age that is mature that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil this is one of the clearest verses of scripture that sets forth what it is to be a mature

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Christian by definition what is Christian maturity Christian maturity is measured according to the capability of being discerning the writer rebuked his readers for being on discerning

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Christians they were babies when they should have been teachers one cause for the deficiency of these

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Christians was that they were not accustomed to the word of righteousness we should probably understand the phrase the word of righteousness as a reference to the body of Christian teaching or doctrine that is the content of the faith of Christianity this word was a standard by which they were to make all judgments however however they were unaccustomed or unfamiliar with it and as a result they didn't have a standard by which to assess things they were unable to distinguish good from evil due to their ignorance of the substance of their faith

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Christian doctrine and their failure to apply it to distinguish good from evil they were endangering themselves they were immature because they were ignorant of the faith they did not understand

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Christian doctrine the teaching of the Bible consequently they had no context or no standard by which to assess matters and the writer thought that they would have difficulty understanding his explanation the high priesthood of Christ because they were ignorant of the faith well to apply this to us if you are ignorant if we are ignorant of sound biblically based theology or doctrine then we are unable to discern truth from error right from wrong good from evil and that's why so many in churches are just all over the place there's a hesitancy and an inability to say with clarity and conviction that's true that's wrong that's error that's good that is evil that's what

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Christian maturity is and the reason you mature Christians are able to do this is because they have been so you know captivated by an understanding of the teachings of the

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Word of God they see it quite clearly but this was an acquired ability by reason of use but they should have been farther along than they were and so he rebuked them and yet even though he expressed this reservation about them he didn't go back over the

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ABCs of the faith he continued talking about the high priesthood of Jesus Christ thankfully he refused to coddle them in their ignorance and so we have in chapter 6 his explanation we're not going to go over the

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ABCs again once again because those apostates have rejected it they're not going to be recovered but rather we need to go on to maturity and so kind of passing over Hebrew 6 we come to chapter 7 in which he lays out the case for Jesus Christ as the priest after the order of Melchizedek because he was addressing

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Jewish Christians the writer knew he introduced a subject that would be difficult for his readers to accept how could

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Jesus Christ be their high priest before God when the law of Moses required the high priest to have been from the tribe of Levi and particularly the family descended from Aaron the first high priest

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Jesus was from the tribe of Judah how can he be a high priest legitimately and chapter explains why

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Jesus was not only a legitimate a high priest being after the order Melchizedek rather than the order of Aaron but he is a far better and greater high priest than ever served in Israel and so he shows the superiority of Melchizedek who was only found in a couple verses in the

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Old Testament back in Genesis and then again recounted in Psalm 110 but Melchizedek was a great man a legitimate high priest who even blessed

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Abraham and you know the one who is always greater blesses the lesser he blessed

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Abraham he must be greater than Abraham and therefore since Levi was Abraham's descendants he must be greater than Levi too and since the priest came out of Levi and Aaron Melchizedek must be greater than Aaron too that's the argument that he discloses in chapter 7 and so he proved

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Jesus was a superior high priest not only because of who Melchizedek is but also because of the superior nature of his ministry and then lastly he shows the superiority of Jesus's character over any

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Aaronic high priest well we come to the fifth division then the covenant sanctuary of sacrifice in chapter 8 through verse 1 through 10 18 and really this is an application since this is true having proven that Jesus Christ was a high priest appointed by God the writer then set forth the superior ministry that Jesus Christ provided for God's people and so here's

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Hebrews 8 verses 1 and following now this is the main point after he's laid this all out in chapters into 5, 6, all of 7 this is the main point of things we're saying we've have such a high priest who's seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister of the sanctuary true sanctuary and the true tabernacle not an earthly one but the one the

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Lord erected not man heaven itself for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices and therefore it's necessary for this one also to have something to offer for if he were on earth he would not be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law he wouldn't have qualified to be a priest in the tabernacle under the

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Mosaic system but they served as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle for he said see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain

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Moses saw heaven on Mount Sinai and was told you make a tabernacle that represents heaven the true place of God dwelling place of God and so Christ obtained a more excellent ministry and as much as he's a mediator a better covenant than Moses ever mediated and this better covenant was established on better promises and so Christ has set forth as having established and inaugurated long promised new covenant that the people of Israel look for since the days of the prophets

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Israel had broken the covenant with God the Mosaic covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai the curse of God for having transgressed his covenant was upon the people but God promised that when the

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Messiah the Son of David came that God would remove their transgression and he would establish a new covenant by by him by the

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Son of David with his people and so this is declared in Isaiah 42 I'm not going to read the whole passage but it's there he's the servant of the

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Lord behold my servant whom I uphold my elect one whom I delight and then if you drop down to verse 6

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God the Father I the Lord have called you that's the Son Jesus in righteousness and will hold your hand

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I will keep you and give you as a covenant to my people Jesus the night is betrayed take this cup drink drink it drink this cup all of it in this cup it's it's the blood of the new covenant

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Jesus himself is the basis of our relationship with God not Ten Commandments he's also a light to the

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Gentiles as we see there in verse 6 and so the writer first declared the nature of the superior ministry of Jesus Christ as a high priest serving his people and then he quoted at length the new covenant promise from Jeremiah 31 31 and following this is the longest

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Old Testament quotation found in the New Testament but now he Christ has established a more excellent ministry than than the

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Old Testament ministry and as much as he also as a mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises for if that first covenant that would be the

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Mosaic Covenant had been faultless then no place would have been sought for a second there wouldn't be need for one because finding fault with them not because of the

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Mosaic Covenant was faulty but the people couldn't keep it that was a problem finding fault with them he says behold the days are coming says the

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Lord and this is from Jeremiah 31 31 and following when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel in the house of Judah not according to the covenant

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I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt not like the

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Mosaic Covenant because they did not continue in my covenant I disregarded them says the Lord for this is a covenant this is the new covenant

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I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I will put my laws in their mind as regeneration write them on their hearts

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I will be their God and they shall be my people and none of them shall teach his neighbor and none of his brothers say know the

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Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them that's not saying everybody in the world will know the

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Lord everybody in the new covenant knows the Lord I don't have to come to you as a Christian and say no

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Lord you know the Lord already by definition that's what it is to come to Christ you know the

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Lord all of them for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds

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I will remember no more and that he says declares a new covenant he has made the first obsolete again the whole implication is why do you

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Jewish Christians think that you're gonna abandon Jesus and be better off you're going back to an old covenant that God himself has replaced there's no salvation there and so in chapter 9 the ministry of Christ as high priest is set forth he serves in a far better sanctuary than that earthly tabernacle and the priest of the

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Old Testament serves in heaven itself before God his father the Old Testament ministry is only in a temporary tabernacle that was a type a shadow of the true and not only is

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Jesus the perfect high priest but he offered a far better sacrifice for sin he offered himself when he died upon the cross which is set forth in verses 11 and 12 in contrast to the

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Old Testament priests we read of Jesus but Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle heaven not made with hands that is not of this creation and not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood he entered the most holy place heaven the presence of the

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Father once for all time having obtained eternal redemption for us he didn't just make possible salvation for everybody he secured the redemption of his people there you have particular redemption or limited atonement when the high priest of the

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Old Testament offered you know sacrifice that lamb or that goat say on the day of atonement that goat didn't apply to everybody in the world it applied for God's people and when

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Christ died although salvation is offered to all people come to Christ you can have salvation his death was intended to atone for the sins of his people and they were atoned for completely and perfectly paid for once finally and it's complete and so his sacrifice he secured salvation from sin for all his people and therefore those who continue to believe on him will one day enter their eternal reward as Hebrews 9 declares 24 for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands an earthly tabernacle which are copies of the true but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us not that he should offer himself often that's a rebuke of Roman Catholic mass right there he didn't have to offer himself weekly in a mass as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another he's comparing the high priest in the annual day of atonement he then would have to suffer one often since the suffer often since the foundation of the world but now once at the end of the ages this is on his cross he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and as it's appointed for men to die once but after this the judgment so Christ was offered wants to bear the sins of many his people to those who eagerly wait for him he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation notice again salvation is a future prospect it's a certainty for those who believe on him and so here we read that the salvation that Jesus Christ obtained will be bestowed fully and freely upon all those who eagerly wait for him that is at his second coming and then he will come to bestow the fullness of all blessing upon them who believe on him and therefore because of who

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Jesus Christ is for what Jesus Christ did for his people through his life and death and due to his present ministry toward his people this brings us to the sixth section of our epistle the call to worship faith and perseverance everything that Jesus Christ is all he bestows freely upon his people we should be motivated to renew our commitment to believe on him to follow him to persevere in that faith through all that we might encounter and so he draws it together in Hebrews 10 therefore brethren having boldness to enter the holiest that's heaven itself by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh the veil of the temple was his own body being torn on the cross he opened up access to God having a high priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith not with doubt and fear and question but with confidence because he has opened up that way having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience our bodies washed with pure water we're truly clean let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering don't stop believing on Jesus don't weaken in your faith for he who promised is faithful let us consider one another here again you have true fellowship in order to stir up love and good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching again the means of grace in a local church fellowship if you separate you go off on your own you don't have that means of grace that God has provided and this brings us to the fourth and final admonition against the willful sin of apostasy and this is one of the most troubling passages in the

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Bible for a lot of people and so I know it's late but we want to deal with this adequately then we'll close for the warning is given for if we sin willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains the sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries anyone who has rejected

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Moses's law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the

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Son of God underfoot and counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified in a common thing and insulted the

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Spirit the Holy Spirit of grace for we know him who said vengeance is mine I will repay says the

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Lord and again the Lord will judge his people it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God and that's referring to apostates those who once claimed they were

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Christians who went to church who said they believed but they've walked away they no longer believe on him and again this is one of the most troubling passages in all scripture and some are troubled needlessly because of this

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I thought we would cite the words of F .F. Bruce who dealt with it very well and I wanted to cite his comments because he addressed the matter thoroughly this passage was destined to have brief percussion in Christian history beyond what our author could have foreseen by sinning willfully he means something like that sinning with a high hand for which no pardon was provided by the

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Old Testament law of atonement he has already emphasized that the despising of the saving message spoken by the

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Son of God must carry with it penalties even more severe than the sanction attached to the law of Moses the word spoken through angels and he repeats the same argument here the content suggests that something much more serious is in his mind than what

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Paul calls being overtaken in any trespass or take overtaken in a fall Galatians 6 1 he's not talking about you and I sinning he's talking about apostasy after all he has pointed out more than once that in Jesus Christ Christians have or that in Jesus Christians have a high priest who can succor them when they are tempted sympathize with them in their infirmities and bear gently with them when they stray from the path through ignorance what he has in mind is rather the falling away from the living

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God which he spoke about back in chapter 3 verse 12 that renunciation of Christianity against which he warned his readers to have received the knowledge of the truth and then reject it is to give up the only way of salvation there remains no more sacrifice for sins which can avail for those who have deliberately abandoned reliance on the perfect sacrifice of Christ that outright apostasy is intended here seems plain from the language of verse 29 the man who's committed this willful sin is described as having spurned the

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Son of God and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and outraged the spirit of grace our author is not given to wild exaggeration and when he uses language like this he chooses his words with customary care to spurn the

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Son of God to trample him underfoot as the word literally means denotes contempt of the most flagrant kind to treat the covenant blood of Christ by which he alone as people are sanctified cleansed and brought to God as no better than the most common death is to repudiate decisively both his sacrifice and all the blessings which flow from it to outrage the spirit of grace is in the words of Jesus to be guilty of an eternal sin anyone who was convicted on adequate testimony of a breach of Israel's covenant law was liable to the death penalty a breach of Israel's covenant law and so ran the inexorable sentence but this was the penalty of physical death the spiritual death which lies in store for the apostate under the new order is a much sore punishment and in spite of the strongly worded admonitions however this writer was actually quite hopeful for his readers that they would not respond that they would respond to his instruction that they would resolve to continue in faith in Jesus Christ and so we read these words of hopefulness that he had for his readers along with his own commitment to persevere in faith unto the end but we recall the former days in which after you were illuminated he first came to Christ you endured a great struggle with sufferings partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated for you had compassion on me and my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven therefore do not cast away your confidence which has great reward for you of need of endure it so that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise and that promises salvation that promises eternal life for yet a little while he was coming will come will not tarry now the just shall live by faith emphasis on living but if anyone draws back that's apostatizes rejects

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Christ my soul has no pleasure in him but then he said this word oh we are not of those who draw back to perdition but of those who believe to the saving of the soul and that's the verse we started out with will not go into detail of the last couple chapters of the epistle but the same themes continue the writer showed forth what true saving faith looks like for many persons whose lives of faith are recorded in the

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Old Testament Hebrews 11 the recounting of the people of faith and when the readers of this epistle consider all who had gone before them they too should be spurned onward even as they considered the sufferings of their

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Savior and so he reasons in Hebrews 12 therefore also since we're surrounded by soda so great a cloud of witnesses not that they're looking down at have from heaven on us but because of all those

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Old Testament witnesses were surrounded by them let us lay aside every weight he's talking about sin there and the sin which so easily and snares us and let us run with endurance perseverance the race it set before us looking on to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God and so he encouraged his readers not to be discouraged to the difficulty they are encountering through which they must persevere in faith they all are ordered and superintended by their

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Heavenly Father who loved them and was training them through all of the difficulties they were encountering moreover they were not experiencing anything the

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Savior had not also encountered and overcome and so he urged them onward to assist one another in their pilgrimage pilgrimage of faith as they journeyed the rest of the way onto their heavenly

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Zion but even as he did even as he said so he added one more word of exhortation say that you do not refuse him who speaks again you have the idea

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God is speaking now through Scripture he's speaking to you and me in the same way this writer was speaking to those who were reading his epistle he is speaking to us with the same authoritative words he's speaking to us see that you do not refuse him who speaks for they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth under the

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Mosaic law much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven whose voice then shook the earth

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Mount Sinai but now he's promising yet once more I shake not only earth but also heaven now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken everything created as of things that are made that the things which cannot be shaken may remain and therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us have grace but may the

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Lord help us through Christ by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our

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God is a consuming fire conclusion we have before us in this

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New Testament epistle confirmation of what we've been declaring about certain false beliefs regarding the way of salvation that contribute to much nominal

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Christianity and churches Hebrew sets for saving faith is that which governs the way the believer lives and that he's a faithful follower of Jesus Christ the

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Lord salvation is much more than only God's forgiveness of sins as important as that is

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God no no not only pardons the sinner but he sanctifies the believer for without holiness no one will see the

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Lord and so we've seen in this epistle that it's a faulty view of saving faith to think that is me it is merely believing who

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Jesus is and what he did through his life death and resurrection the scripture set for saving faith is transformative which shows itself in the center repenting of all sin and submitting to Jesus Christ the

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Lord and then we've seen in this epistle that saving faith is not just a one -time decision to accept

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Christ whatever that means rather saving faith is shown forth in a life of fellowship with Christ and with his people a life that continues to believe unto the final saving of the soul at the end of the life of faith so may the

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Lord affirm these important truths to us set before us may we all confess that we are not those who draw back to perdition but of those who believe to the saving of the soul and with one another's encouragement and help and with the scriptures instructing us and the high priesthood of Jesus Christ helping us giving us grace and the

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Holy Spirit enabling us there's no question we're going to do it we who believe on him amen let's pray thank you father for your word and for the blessed promises as well as the warnings our

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God help us to be true to you and help us our God to represent you faithfully in the generation this place our