Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 5)

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Heaven, Hell and Everything In Between (part 6)

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I've been preaching the Bible on a weekly basis for about 15 years, and I calculated that was about 1 ,200 messages or so.
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And in today's message, I'm going to do something for the first time. I've never done in 1 ,200 messages, but I think
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I'll do one today. For those of you that are here on a regular basis, don't leave yet.
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Don't think that I have somehow lost my theology. For those of you that are visiting, you'll think this just is a normal thing.
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Why wouldn't I do it on a regular basis? But sometime in the message today, I'm going to do something I've never done in 1 ,200 messages.
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That is, I'm going to give an altar call during this sermon.
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Now my definition of altar call might be different than yours, so hang in there with me. Let's turn our
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Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. We've been working through the book of Hebrews.
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Quickly, as I've come back from South Africa, I wanted to have a jet tour of Hebrews. It's turned into about six weeks now.
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This is week number six. Lord willing, we'll be back into the Sermon on the Mount next Sunday, Matthew chapter 6.
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But right now, we want to finish up with Hebrews. And again, I'm not trying to go through every verse. I'm not trying to pull out every detail that would help us understand, but I wanted to have an overview so that we might have maybe not a jet tour, but kind of like a prop plane overview or some kind of glider or something like that, because I want us to understand this great book that has one central theme.
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What's the theme? Go ahead and let's just say it out loud to see how our memory is doing. The theme of Hebrews is superiority of Christ, and it's set in a
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Jewish context, obviously, to the Hebrews. And so you can imagine here, the writer of Hebrews, through the inspiration of the
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Spirit of God, is trying to tell us that based on the Levitical system, the Old Covenant, all the blood and sacrifices of bulls and goats and other things, that is not equal to Christ.
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That is inferior to Christ, correct? If Jesus is superior, then that means that this infrastructure of the
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Levitical sacrifices was inferior. It could not, with finality, deal with sin.
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And so this whole book, 13 chapters, is about the superiority of Christ.
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And it's interesting, at the very end in chapter 13, we'll see today, he calls it a brief exhortation. Isn't that interesting?
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Who would think it would be brief? I'd call Philemon brief. I wouldn't call Hebrews brief.
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And so we want to just take an overview. If you'd like to have me to go a little slower, wait until next week.
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We've done Hallowed Be Thy Name. It was my last series here in the Sermon on the Mount, or there in the
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Sermon on the Mount, and we did four weeks, Hallowed Be Thy Name. So I can go slower, but now
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I'm purposely going faster through Hebrews so that you might A, see the superiority of Christ, B, live like Jesus is superior, and C, I want to give you a little taste for this book so that you won't be intimidated by it, but that you'll fall in love with it, so you'd regularly visit, yearly visit, maybe even more the book of Hebrews.
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Now the way Hebrews is set up, you already know this, five demonstrations of Christ's superiority,
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Jesus is superior over the prophets, he's superior over the angels, he's superior over Moses, he's superior over Aaron, and he's superior over the old covenant, good.
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And mixed in between these five statements of Jesus' superiority over the prophets, angels,
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Moses, Aaron, and the old covenant are five warnings, and we'll see some of those warnings today.
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So let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, and this starts the practical application section.
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Verse 19 is where theology is fleshed out, where it's incarnated, if you will.
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We have things to believe, and that should affect our behavior. We have doctrines that we say we agree with, now here the writer says, if you agree that Jesus is superior, how will then you respond?
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And so chapter 10, verse 19, all the way through chapter 13, give us the practical application, if you will, to this doctrine.
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On a side note, never forget that doctrine is practical. It's not like somehow doctrine is this amorphous kind of vague, ethereal thing out there.
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It is something tangible, and then it will affect the way you do things. And so we see here the application of the greatness and superiority and supremacy of Jesus Christ, the only
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God, the only Messiah, who with finality, with authority, and with completeness deals with sin.
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So much so that in chapter 10, remember last week, verse 9, he said, behold,
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I have come to do your will, the son speaking to the father, and then the writer says he takes away the first covenant in order to establish the second.
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Jesus takes the first covenant, and if it was a person, he would have come up behind the person and slit the person's throat to kill it, to assassinate it, because it no longer is needed, it's no longer used, and it can't be, it can't work forever because it never did its job.
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And so Jesus takes away the first covenant and establishes the second. So how must we then live?
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Verse 19, therefore, you see the hinge? Here is the hinge. There's always a hinge with doctrine and duty, just like in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, that we ought to walk in a manner, what?
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Worthy of our calling. And I said this to the new membership class last week. If you can imagine a scale, and here's the scale, a weighing scale.
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Here is chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 through verse 18. Now the writer's going to say, by the way you live, balance out those scales.
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That's exactly the word used in Ephesians chapter 4. And so how do you think it would start?
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How do you think Hebrews 10, 19 would start? Well, remember, there are some people in the congregation who are
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Christians. There are some people who are sitting on the edge. And there are some people who are not sitting on the edge.
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They're way over on this side saying, I don't believe Jesus is God at all. So in light of Jesus' superiority, what's the first thing you think the writer would say?
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You're exactly right. He says in verse 22 of Hebrews 10, just a little review. Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of the faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
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That is a Jewish way, a Hebrew way to say, then you ought to get saved. You ought to believe in Jesus the
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Messiah. You ought to come all the way. If you're sitting on the fence, you need to repent of your sins and your embracing of some kind of works righteousness, turning your back on sin and turning unto the
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Messiah. If you're way over here saying Jesus isn't God anyway, you ought to realize that there's a real
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Messiah and you ought to draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. And you can hear the
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Jew just saying, everything in the old covenant is set up so I stay away. I'm excluded.
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I can't get close. And here, because we have God the Son, you can come close. You can draw near with a sincere heart.
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Now for the Christians, those who already believe, the writer says something else, verse 23. To the believers, he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.
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This is a metaphor and it means this, to grab, to possess, to hold on.
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You can imagine they're getting persecuted. You can imagine if you're a Jew and you believe in Jesus, you're unsynagogued, you can't work, you can't have an education, nothing can happen and all the persecution still should not make you turn your back on who this
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Jesus is. Hold fast. Don't waver. Remember John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress writing about Mr.
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Facing Both Ways? I hate to put in any kind of pop culture or commercials, but I've seen those
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Southwest Airlines commercials, haven't you? Where the lady's talking this way and she turns around and she's got a face on the back of her head and all that stuff.
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There's one way to go and backwards is to destruction, forward is to the
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Messiah. Don't face both ways. And he says, furthermore, to these Christians, remember this from last week, verse 24, and let us, those who are safe, consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds.
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And how do you stimulate other Christians, agitate them, spur them on to good works? Well, you've got to be around them, verse 25, not forsaking our own assembly together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
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Jesus is the Messiah and he's superior to everything. So A, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and B, love your neighbor as yourself.
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That's what he's talking about. And then we have this great chapter, chapter 11.
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Chapter 11 has one key word and that key word is what, congregation? Faith. Set up and opposed to and against works and sacrifices and doing and cutting and slaying and arranging and alters, all those things, we have faith instead.
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Now here we have this wonderful chapter, the chapter of faith. My NAS says the triumphs of faith.
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It's called the hall of faith and all kinds of wonderful descriptions. And here we see even the definition of faith, verse 1, said two different ways, both meaning the same thing.
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Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things, a conviction of things not yet seen.
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Every one of these examples, you see these people taking hold of Jesus personally, believing in him personally, having faith personally, where you don't just say, it's good to know, but you say,
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I personally believe, I personally stake my eternal destiny on this Jesus.
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They're all taking Jesus personally. As Luther said, they're apprehending nothing else but the precious jewel of Christ Jesus.
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How could they do this? They couldn't do it on their own. We know faith is a gift and here's a demonstration of God's greatness in saving all these people.
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Many people who were saved before the law was even given. You say, well, those are good to know, but if you go to chapter 12, we're almost done with our review.
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It's good to look at Abraham, Sarah, Abel, some of these people who have walked by faith, but let's not get our mind sidetracked from the ultimate perfecter of our faith and that is, of course,
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Christ Jesus. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, so many others have walked by faith, these great and godly men and women, he's now going to put the finger on you.
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By the way, these witnesses are not up in heaven clapping, saying, go Mike, go, go, run fast.
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They're put in the mind of the hearers so they say, others have done it, I can too because it's the same God. Let us lay aside every encumbrance, any kind of Levitical system of works and sacrifices, get rid of that.
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You can just see the running metaphors here, and the sin which so easily entangles us.
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Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. It is a race and how do you run? I was always the worst runner when it comes to football and basketball and I was the last one.
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So I said to myself, I'm going to become a great runner. So I just began running, running, running, running. The one thing about running is you have to look which direction.
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It doesn't take you many falls to realize that you ought not to run looking over your shoulder. I've only run one 10K, one half marathon and one marathon and I always looked forward when
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I ran. Funny thing, isn't it? Just look straight ahead. There's all these things that you can imagine this
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Jewish person would look back to, but what about this? What about that? What about the sacrifice?
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What about the altar? What about the incense? What about the burnt offerings? What about my grandmother who lived believing that but now is dead?
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What about my mother who lived believing that but now is dead? What about my children? What about all these things? It's time to run this way, fixing look at verse 2, our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, the faith that was given to these people in chapter 11.
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And how did Jesus run? Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and with finality, with honor and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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This word means to look with all one's attention, fixing your eyes, not distracted, not looking right, not looking left, like Stephen.
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Listen to Acts 7 .55, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God as he was stoned, killed.
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And he says, you know, it's a hard life, Christianity is rough, there's all kinds of sacrifices, and if you're weary and you lose heart, there's a solution, verse 3, consider him with careful deliberation, reason, and say to yourself,
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I'll examine Jesus' death in my place and that should motivate me for ministry. Let's talk about homework just a little bit because we like to do that here.
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How many people said this week to two different people, have you read your Bibles today? Many. Good.
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How many did it just to one person? Here's your homework for this week.
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It'll take you 30 minutes, you have to turn off your ear candies or whatever those things are that people have.
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What's the...earplugs, what do they call them? I know they call them earplugs, but there's some kind of newer ones, skeleton, skull candy or something.
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Okay. I'm going to call it a Walkman if you're not careful. By yourself, alone, and listen to what
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Albert Barnes says in light of this verse. You say, I'm weary,
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I'm losing heart, I have issues, and your issues don't have to be martyrdom like in these days, kicking out of the synagogue like in these days, it works universally for whatever troubles you have.
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Albert Barnes, I entreat you, he's asking for an hour, I'm asking for 30 minutes,
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I entreat you to devote one solemn hour of thought to a crucified savior, a savior expiring in the bitterest agony.
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Think of the cross, the nails, the open wounds, the anguish of his soul.
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Think how the son of God became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief that you might live forever.
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Think as you lie down upon your bed to rest, how your savior was lifted up from the earth to die. Think amid your plans and anticipations of future gaiety, what the redemption of your soul has cost, and how the dying savior would wish you to act.
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And then, with a switchblade -like stick into the midsection, he says,
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Jesus' wounds plead that you live for better things. So just take a half hour, find a place to get alone, and just think about the cross.
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And this is what God uses to spur people on. And by the way, verse 4, we haven't shed any blood striving for sin yet.
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Well, then the writer moves on, and he basically says, some of your troubles happen because you're a
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Christian, and some of your troubles happen because God is chastening you and disciplining you, verses 5 through 11.
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We won't spend much time here because I have too many sermons for today. So I'll just say this.
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He's going to tell them that discipline is good. How many kids do we have here today? Do you like discipline?
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Who here, 12 years old or under, loves discipline? It's no different back in these days as well.
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But who loves the fruit of discipline and the order of discipline and then the wonderful making up with your parents and the sweet fellowship afterwards?
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Discipline is good. And discipline shows that the one receiving discipline, that he is actually not hated, but he is what?
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Or she is loved. Fathers discipline their children as a sign of love.
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Verse 5, if you've forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, do not regard lightly the discipline of the
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Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. With a verse that I would love to have society understand, but they can't without the
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Spirit. For those whom the Lord loves, He what? Gives new cars to, prosperity, health, wealth, turn on TV in, and what do you get?
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You get it all. No disciplines. And He scourges, how many sons?
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Every son whom He receives. But you know, there's grace given, verse 12 and 13.
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There's enablement given. And here the enablement of grace comes through exhortation to stay on target.
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How gracious is it that God would say, therefore, strengthen the hands, verse 12, that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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Move forward. Move forward, because there is shame for those that don't, verse 15 and 16.
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I didn't see this in a commentary, so maybe it's one original thought in the sermon. As chapter 11 is the hall of faith, chapter 12, verse 15, 16, and 17 is the hall of shame.
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Look at the hall of shame. It's one thing to see these great runners of the faith, chapter 11. It's another to take a look at this pitiful man.
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I don't want to be like this man. Neither do you. Verse 15, see to it.
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See to it. By the way, that's a very weird word. It's where we get the word Episcopalian. It's where we get the word bishop.
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As a bishop oversees people, as an Episcopalian oversees, has overseers above them, oversee with your mind so you take a look at this very closely, that you don't come short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up, verse 15, causes trouble, and by it maybe many are defiled.
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And look at what he calls Esau, that there be no immoral, some kind of fornicator, the word is pornos, or godless person profane like Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
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Because there is tragic, there are tragic consequences. Verse 17, for you know that even afterwards, he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place for repentance though he sought it with tears.
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Don't be like that. Take a look at your life. Take a look at what you believe in, in who you believe in.
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Have good oversight over it and then take a look at somebody like Esau who was a lying, profane, immoral glutton.
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Well, you can kind of see how he works, the writer of Hebrews. Sometimes he goes hardcore and then encourages.
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Sometimes he goes hardcore and then turns it up even more. And that's what he does here. Warning number 5 found in chapter 12 verses 18 through 29.
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This warning has been brewing for a while. This warning has been kind of percolating for a little bit and now it's kind of ready to go.
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What would be a better illustration? If you have water that boils and then when it's ready, it makes a sound, right?
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Not the water makes a sound but the tea kettle makes a sound. Here's the sound, don't deny all this.
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It is possible to deny this. And here's what he does in the rest of chapter 12.
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He creates this mental picture for these Jews and now for you as well. Sinai to represent fear and pain and awesome destruction versus Zion which will represent joy and the heavenly city.
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And he's going to say, these are the paths in front of you. They're not five ways to God. There's not three ways to God. There's one way to God and there's the right way.
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And then if there's the right way, there's the wrong way. So don't go to Sinai where there's awesome consuming fire.
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Come to Zion where Christ is the king and there's the heavenly city full of joy.
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And that's what he does here. Terror and joy run from this run to that. Verse 18, for you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and do a blazing fire.
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We're talking about Sinai. Listen how he describes it. And to darkness and gloom and whirlwind.
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Who wants to draw near to that? Do you? And to the blast of the trumpet and the sounds of the words, which sound was such that those that heard beg that no further word should be spoken to them.
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I beg you, God, we're going to die if we hear another word. Sinai didn't say, oh, come real close.
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Come on, it's time for encouragement. Put my arm around you. Yeah, come on. Everybody come over here. Remember, they put basically yellow police tape on the on the base of the mountain that said, don't ever don't anybody touch them.
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And by the way, if anybody touches the mountain, they're dead. And if some animal just kind of wanders over and breaks through the borders and the boundaries, kill them.
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But by the way, when you kill them, don't cross the border because now we're going to have to kill you to kill them from a distance.
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Who wants to come to this? No one does. No one should. They couldn't stand at verse 20.
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They couldn't bear the command. Even a beast who touches the mountain, it will be destroyed. Now, you know, sometimes
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I go overboard with my illustration. So I'll be I'll try to be a little careful today. But this is planned.
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And so we'll see what we what we do. Sinai Old Covenant works sacrifice of both bulls and goats over and over and over and over and over that can't make anybody perfect.
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They can't get anybody to heaven versus Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith who for the joy set before him.
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These are the two different options. When you see Sinai, it should give you that stomach feeling that the kind of stomach feeling you get just before you throw up.
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You've got about two seconds to get into the sink or into the garbage can, and you've just got that queasy feeling where, you know,
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I know it's going to go. That's the feeling right here. He's trying to get that feeling. So when you see Sinai, you don't run back and say,
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I can't wait to get back to killing animals again and Old Testament sacrifices and all these other things. And no, it's not that at all.
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Come to Zion, this heavenly city. It's that feeling that would be quite opposite of that queasy feeling over here with Sinai.
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It would be the feeling. Where's Andrew Smith? Where's he today? Is Andrew here? He's in the back.
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All right. Chapter 13. No, just kidding. Can you imagine the newborn baby?
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Claire is born. What kind of facial expressions must have Andrew had? And the joy the first time
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I saw it in the pictures where he's looking at the baby just with this open face, full of joy look.
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And the writer says, everyone who listens, everyone who's in this room, there are two options for you. There's either the law that you can never live up to or there's grace.
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Choose grace. God doesn't believe for you. I believe belief is a gift.
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Yes, but it's also a duty. Moses was even afraid of Sinai verse 21.
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So terrible was the site that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling.
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And then he just stops on a dime. Verse 12, but you have come perfect tense.
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It's established. It's finished as Jesus work is finished. So to Zion, to Mount Zion.
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And then he uses all this language just to create this picture of joy. The Jews would read this and go, this is joy filled.
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This is the direction I want to follow. The direction I want to go to the city of the living
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God. Cities protected living God versus dead gods.
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The heavenly Jerusalem. If Jerusalem was great, how much more heavenly Jerusalem to the myriads of angels, to the general assembly in the church of the firstborn who are rolled in heaven.
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I want this door to one door of two. I want this one. Verse 24,
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Jesus is there. And Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and the sprinkle blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
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Choose that one doom or joy, dread or rejoicing.
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By the way, this kingdom can't be shaken. All right.
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End of chapter 12. There's more, but I don't have time. Now we come to some concluding exhortations.
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Let me give you nine of those. Some people think that since chapter 12 and 13 aren't hooked together by a word like and, but therefore, even also that somebody else came along and just added chapter 13.
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They say, well, chapters one through 12 have a theme. The old covenant can't allow sins to exist, but can't completely forgive them.
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New covenant. Jesus is the mediator. He gives us access. There's finality to the sacrifice. But now we don't get a lot of that language here.
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Certainly, I believe that this is in the canon and it makes all the sense in the world because I think he gives so many commands here, even though there's not a connection grammatically.
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These are great commands that if God has saved you, you are able to do, encouraged to do, commanded to do.
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And these are very, very thought provoking. Some are logical.
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Some come out of left field. Number one, if you really believe that Jesus is superior, then you will love other
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Christians. Number one, verse one. This is kind of rubber hits the road. I've set it up in such a way that, of course, we're not after perfection.
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We're after direction. But these are the standards of God. You can't say, I think Jesus is superior and hate other
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Christians. That's what he's trying to say there. By the way, some Christians aren't that fun to love.
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And so here we have to have the command. If they were fun to love, we wouldn't need the command. Verse one, let love of the brethren continue.
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Imperative, ongoing, keep going over and over and over. Make this truth of Jesus superiority in your life manifest by loving other
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Christians. For others, we have this common bond saved by the death of Christ Jesus.
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We're linked together no matter what color we are, background we are, age we are. We need to have
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Philadelphia love is the love there. It's not agape. It's brotherly love. One man said, if Jesus died for you, you have to live for others.
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That's what Jesus did. If you love Jesus, it will show the way you love other
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Christians. Number two, if you really believe that Jesus is superior, you will also love strangers.
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This is kind of a little harder, maybe in some sense. Verse two, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.
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For by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it. Again, a present imperative, meaning an ongoing command, love strangers.
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I don't know about you, but when I meet a stranger, I'm suspicious by nature.
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When you meet a stranger someplace, I mean, maybe walking around Westboro, Charleston, everything would be fine.
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But you start going to Boston, you start going to New York City, and some stranger comes up to you. I'm naturally suspicious of these people.
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Back in these days, what would you do if you had other Christians visiting? They're not going to go down to Motel 6.
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They're not going to go down to a courtyard. The inns back in those days and the places for sleep were sleazy.
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And so we have to purposely show love to strangers. That's basically what the word hospitality means.
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Take the word love, take the word stranger, put it together, and it says, show hospitality.
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By the way, there's a very easy way to do this at our church. We now have people who, for instance, probably tonight want to stay around BBC environs so they can come to the six o 'clock service tonight, but don't want to drive back to,
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I don't know where people drive from these days, Bar Harbor. I don't know where they live. We could have some kind of tweener ministry where in between services, come to our home.
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We'd love to have you. And you're like, I don't know who they are. I've never met them. Great. You'll get to know them pretty quickly.
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Love strangers. Don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Think about the Jew who's thinking, you know, if I let these people in my life, they might not really be
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Christians and they'll tell the local authorities. It's kind of like spending three months last year in what used to be
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East Berlin. I take a walk with my family and everybody looks down when you walk because they're so programmed there in the
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Czech Republic to not establish eye contact because they might think that you're doing something wrong.
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They might think that you're going to report them to the authorities. And here, basically, the writer says, look people in the eyes and serve them.
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Even if you don't know them, don't be suspicious. Love them. And by the way, they might be a blessing in disguise.
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I don't think there's any angels walking around here with bodies. That's not the point. But there are benefits to serving strangers.
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That's what he's after. Have you ever served someone and it's cost you and you've received actually at the end of the day more than what you've given?
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Number three, you really believe Jesus is superior if... Who would think of this?
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Who would say this? Number three, if you remember the prisoners. Verse three.
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What? If you think Jesus is superior, you're going to remember prisoners.
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Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them. Well, I don't really know if I need to love them very much.
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I'll send them a card once a year. If you were in prison with them, would you want to receive a card once a year?
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No, you'd be hands -on. And those who are ill -treated, since you yourselves are also in the body.
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The word there, again, is a present imperative. Keep reminding yourselves over and over and over that there are
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Christians in the prisons and we ought to be praying for them and serving them. I thought to myself, you know what we need?
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We need a prison ministry. What town is this church in? West Boylston.
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Where's the closest correctional facility to where we are right now? It's down the street.
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I need a leader for the prison ministry. And you say, well, that's Pastor Cooley's job because he's an LA sheriff and he's taking care of that.
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Friends, that's not Pastor Cooley's job. It's hard for a sheriff to get in and minister among the prisoners.
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He would do it, but he can't do it. What about you? We have a tweeners ministry going, verse 2.
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Now we have the prison ministry, verse 3. Hospitality to strangers, they kind of seek you out almost.
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But the prisoners, you've got to go find. They can't come to you. Number four, who would say this?
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God would. You really think Jesus is superior? Then be faithful in your marriage relationship. Sexually, verse 4.
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Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers
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God will judge. Marriage in general is to be an honorable institution made by God, certainly for men and women only.
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And it should be pure. Don't let anybody tell you celibacy is the way to go.
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Gay marriage is the way to go. As long as we love each other, it's fine. Marriage should be held in honor among all.
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Marriage bed, the koite must be undefiled. And for those who are here fornicating now and adulterers in adulterous relationships now, we know one fact, two facts.
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A, you don't really think God is superior and B, you've forgotten God will judge. Can you imagine what this first century
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Jew must have been thinking when there are pagans everywhere, sex was the currency of the culture, and then all of a sudden, no,
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I have to be monogamous. Number five, if you really believe
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Jesus is superior, you won't just covet other people and other spouses and other people as sexual objects.
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You won't covet money either, verses 5 and 6. Don't covet. Don't covet. So one of my favorite little sections in all the
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Bible right here, verses 5 and 6. And basically, here's what the writer is going to say. You don't need to covet because God is your father.
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If you have everything and own everything or your father owns everything, then what do you need?
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And he does it in such a great way. Look at this, verse 5. Something more important in life than temporal things.
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Let your character be free from the love of money. Being content with what you have, for he himself emphatically has said, capital letter straight from the
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Old Testament, I will never desert you, nor will
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I ever forsake you. And so we confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I shall not be afraid.
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What shall man do to me? And he emphasizes it in a really interesting way in the
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Greek. First of all, he doesn't put any kind of main verbs in there. Second of all, he just stacks up a bunch of negatives.
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Gromach, he said, it should be translated this way or could be translated this way. I will absolutely not leave you nor forsake you under any circumstances.
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Be content in every circumstance because God will never leave you. And I don't know about you, but this is something that we all suffer with.
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I suffer, not suffer with, suffer from loving money. Be free from that. You say,
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I struggle with money and loving money. Answer to your problem, theology proper.
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God will never leave you. How's that for a doctrine that is practical? Rhetorical question.
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He's never going to leave. He's never going to leave. So I should never be afraid. Number six, number six, you really think
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Jesus is superior? Then number six, you'll remember your leaders. Now the context here is dead leaders.
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But these are leaders that have been in your life before who have run the race before you. And you say, chapter 11 is pretty far off.
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I mean, how many thousands of years was, was Moses, Sarah, Abraham, Jephthah, Samson, chapter 11?
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I never even met any of those guys. I kind of like to see faith in a person that I could say, you know, my old pastor, my old missionary friend, my father who trained me.
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That's exactly what he's talking about here. So there's not just some Abraham person thousands of years ago, but people who are leaders given faith by God.
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And it says in verse seven, remember those who led you. Past tense, they must have died. Who spoke the word of God to you.
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By the way, that's what every leader must do or he's not a leader. Speaks the word of God. Remember those who led you, considering the result of their conduct.
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Every leader should say, this is what it's like to be a Christian, act like I do. Imitate their faith.
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Remember those. In addition to this great honor roll in chapter 11, here we have those who rule and speak the word and try to live it out.
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I can think of a pastor in my life. I can think of John MacArthur, but my pastor before that, I don't even agree with all his theology.
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But I think of his faith and I think of his life and I think how he taught me the word. And I'm to remember that example.
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You say, yeah, but he died. Verse eight, there's somebody who will never die who's the real example. Teachers come and go.
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Leaders come and go. Good examples of faith come and go. But verse eight, someone is always the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
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The immutable, eternal, ultimate leader who spoke the truth, who we can imitate every bit of his life and who rules the church.
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The ruler who will never disappoint. The ruler who has no change in his nature. For all those who will follow us, they can still look to this leader.
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All right. Number seven, we're going to make it. We're going to make it. Give lots of sacrifices.
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Number seven, give lots of sacrifices.
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What do you mean give sacrifices? That's exactly what was the question that was going on back in those days.
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Every pagan religion, Judaism as well, gave sacrifices. Some little pumpkin, some bull, some virgins.
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Who knows what people gave, but there was a sacrifice. And now all of a sudden, you can imagine the
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Jews who don't believe in the Messiah saying to the Jews who do believe in the Messiah, you don't have any more sacrifices.
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And the writer of Hebrew says, yes, you do. These are the sacrifices, but they're not bloody.
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They're not carcasses. They're something else. But before he tells us, he gives a little intro.
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Verse nine, do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. We don't know what they were, but they knew back then.
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These multicolored teachings that were out there. Don't go after the new things. It's the latest for it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace.
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Not by foods through which those who are so occupied are not benefited.
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You can go down to Shaw's and Clinton right next to the Seventh Adventist College and eat tofu, corn dogs all you want, but it's not going to help you spiritually.
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Now that's kind of funny, but obviously it's not. If you like tofu, that's fine. You can be a vegetarian. That's not the problem.
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But because you're a vegetarian doesn't mean God loves you more. It's not a spiritual benefit.
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There may be some physical benefit. Verse 10.
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Sacrifices. I thought sacrifices were done. He's going to say there are some sacrifices for Christians.
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And to have a sacrifice for Christians, you've got to have a what? What do you sacrifice on?
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An altar. Hence, my altar call for the day. I'm calling you to give sacrifices on the altar.
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What's the altar? Let's find out. We have an altar. He's going to tell them something about giving sacrifices, but he's going to tell them that there's an altar to give the sacrifices on.
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We have an altar. Verse 10. From which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.
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Therefore, Jesus, what's the next word? Also, the cross is the altar in a very real sense, in a very technical sense, in a word picture sense, the cross of Christ is called the altar.
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And we give sacrifices to this personified cross. No, we give sacrifices to Jesus, who's no longer on the cross.
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But in this wonderful wordplay that the Hebrew writer is using, he's saying, I'm going to tell you in just a minute to give sacrifices.
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But by the way, we have an altar. And that altar is a once for all altar. It was called the cross of Jesus Christ.
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That he might sanctify, verse 12, the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. So let us also go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach.
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And now he says, here are the two sacrifices. Sacrifice number one that we are allowed to offer through the cross of Christ and his finished work, confirmed by his resurrection.
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Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of what? Praise! That is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name.
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Here's the sacrifice for Christians. Praise that contains thanksgiving. I said to myself, how can
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I teach this? How can I think about this in my own life? What's the opposite of praise that contains thanksgiving?
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Complaining. How could we complain? How could we complain?
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We're to be praising God. Old covenant, kill a lamb. New covenant,
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God, thank you. I don't have to kill a lamb. You killed your son, the lamb. And there's another sacrifice, verse 16.
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And do not neglect doing good and sharing. For with such sacrifices, God is pleased. One sacrifice goes to God.
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Thank you, God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The other one is more horizontal. I'll serve your people.
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Those are Christian sacrifices. Two more. Number eight. You think
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I'm just saving this because I'm some kind of tyrannical dictator or something?
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No, but everybody submits to someone. And here's how submission works in the house of God. Verse 17. If you believe that Jesus is superior, verse 17, you'll obey your leaders and submit to them.
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Show me a disobedient congregate and one who's unsubmissive. I'll show you one that needs to revisit
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Christ's superiority. Why would we have to obey leaders and submit to them? Obey means
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I assent to your direction and I'll do it. Submit means to yield even though you have a contrary opinion.
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Okay, that's what it means. I obey, you tell me what to do, I'll do it.
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I submit, I'll yield even though I disagree. I told you the story many times. I first got to this church and I said, you know, by the way, could we have some ushers who, instead of wearing some kind of t -shirts that say
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Gatorade rules or something all wadded up in some kind of big ball and tucked in the side of their shirt or something.
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I thought that was good for Santa Cruz down at the boardwalk during the 1960s and Haight -Ashbury. But I thought around here, I just like some kind of, you know, ushers, could you please wear a suit, a jacket, tie, nice shirt.
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If you don't own it, I'll buy you one. And this particular group of people came to me and they said, you show me a Bible verse that says
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I have to do that and I'll do it. How about if I show you
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Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17. And if you can find a Bible verse that says you don't have to do what
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I've just simply asked you to do, then you don't have to do it. That's submission. We submit to our bosses at work.
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We submit to our husbands. We submit to the government. Christian life is one of submission. And here it's present imperative over and over and over and over.
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Remember the dead leaders that you used to have and now submit to these. Submit to them.
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And by the way, it's for your own good. First, before he says that, these people watch. They watch out for you.
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They're kept awake at night. Ask any one of the elders how many times they don't sleep at night because they're thinking and praying for you.
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And you want to submit that they may do it with joy. You can ask yourself the question. I believe
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Jesus is superior. But when the elders meet on Thursday nights for the elder meetings, when they go through the directory, do they say of me, boy, that person gives us joy.
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They give us joy the way they serve. Or do they give us grief? Look at the text grief.
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It means to groan. It means the elder board sits there on Thursday nights and goes like this. When we see your picture in the directory.
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And we do both. Look at what God is doing in this person's life. Joy. Look at what
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God is doing to our lives in this person. Oh, I'm not kidding. That's my ministry is to bug the elders.
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Of course, you can disagree with us. Of course, you can give us your opinions. We don't want to lord it over you. By the way, do you see this text?
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It's amazing. This is one of the most fascinating words in all the Bible.
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If you look at verse 17, it says this would be unprofitable for you. You think you're trying to get back at the leadership, but it's unprofitable for you.
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Let me read you a commentary. What it says about this word unprofitable. It is composed of three concepts, not loose tax, not loose tax.
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The commentator says a rebel does not get away with his insubordination, even though he does not pay his obligation to his human leaders.
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He is not loose from his spiritual tax towards God. God will require it of him either in this life or at the judgment seat.
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You think you get away with your insubordination to the church leadership and in the congregation, but God will not lose your tax when you have to stand before him.
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And when you realize Jesus is superior over the entire church, and he's the one who's sovereign and controlling the leaders, it's a lot easier to submit.
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Number nine. And finally, for today, there may be some more imperatives in Hebrew 13, but for today, nine ways that we can show
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Jesus is superior by the Spirit's power and his enabling grace. Number nine, pray for your leaders.
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Paul didn't say pray for leaders, but he said pray for us. Maybe you don't think it's Paul. Maybe it's Paul and Barnabas.
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Maybe it's Paul and someone else. But I'd at least ask you, if he knew he needed prayer, we're asking as an elder board, we need prayer.
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For we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. Would you pray for the leadership?
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Would you pray that we conduct ourselves honorably? This particular case, it looks like somehow someone's accusing this, the writer of Hebrews, doing something wrong.
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And he's saying, pray for us. I don't want to retaliate. I don't want to get back. I have a clean conscience and I want to act honorably.
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That's my desire. And he says in verse 19, I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you the sooner.
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I want to get over this obstacle. Then he gives a doxology. After everything said and done.
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After everything said and done, here's the praise. Here is a sacrifice. We offer a sacrifice of praise.
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Here's the praise. And if you like, did I give homework for next this week?
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I already did. Okay, can't do it. I was going to say, let's memorize this doxology together. Maybe we do that another week.
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Now, the God of peace, the God of Shalom, he's writing to the Jews, the God of wholeness and complete life and joy and satisfaction.
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This God of peace who grants this kind of peace, who brought up from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep.
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Through the blood of the eternal covenant. Everything we've been learning the last six weeks is just coming alive here.
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Through the blood, the sacrificial death of the eternal covenant. Even Jesus, our
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Lord, not just Savior, but Lord. Equip you in every good thing to do his will. Working in us, which is pleasing in the sight through Jesus, the
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Messiah, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Like every good pastor, he can't land the plane there.
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So he says in verse 22, finally. Sometimes Paul will say number one, and then he'll never have number two.
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That's just the way you talk. But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation.
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For I've written to you briefly. Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released. Oh, isn't it good to know that Timothy early on, even though maybe timid,
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Paul said, you're going to have to act like a man. He was a man so much he had to go to jail for it. If you come soon,
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I'll see you. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
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And the umbrella for everything in the Levitical system, for all of the superiority of Christ, what we need more than anything else, to try you in God.
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Grace be with you. Heavenly Father, we exalt your name today as a church,
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Bethlehem Bible Church. We would acknowledge that you and your sovereign power have assembled us together, that you have redeemed us based on the finished work of Christ Jesus, applied by your
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Spirit's almighty power, that we serve a risen Savior, and that,
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Lord, you are pleased to call us your people all because of Christ. And, Lord, we would ask in areas of our lives where we're not manifesting your superior greatness, whether it's with money, with our bodies, with our attitudes, with leaders, service, praise, thanksgiving, whatever it might be,
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I pray that you would give us grace to do that, that we would be a church not known for anything except the exaltation of Christ Jesus through preaching, and that we are a different people.
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I pray, Lord, that in our church that you would stir up ministries to serve strangers, that you would stir up ministries like the jail ministry.
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And, Lord, we'd ask that you do a radical work in our lives so that we'd look back in the next few years and think that,
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God, you have visited us through this series in Hebrews for these six life -changing weeks.
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And, Lord, I'm thankful especially today that this book is all about you. It's not about our felt needs.
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It's not about our minor problems. It's about the exaltation of Christ Jesus. And I pray today, especially for those families who are hurting, as Pastor Steve prayed for, and the
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Westcots and the Burns and so many others, and I think of Karen Binney. We have ongoing struggles.
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I pray that in the middle of the trial, in the middle of the suffering, that Christ Jesus would be seen by others as superior and be seen in the life of the
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Westcots and the Binneys and the Burns and all the other people here as superior. We serve a great
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God. Thank you for stooping to save us. And we want to give you a sacrifice of praise by saying, thank you.