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Pastor Mike continues to talk about Hebrews 6.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, Michael Abreu, and it is 1225 p .m. on November 9th, 2018, real-time. How can I prove that today is the day? Well, I can�t. I know there�s a bunch of fires in California, I do know that, and my daughter�s in Israel for the semester, but my son is in L .A., so when things happen in L .A., it perks my ears up a little bit.
Actually my son Luke, I call him NoCo Jr., he was at that dancing place last year, I think with some people at Grace Church. I know, don�t tell John they were out dancing. But he said it wasn�t like a bar bar, it was this, you know, kind of dance place.
Anyway. Scary. I mean, anytime you think today could be the day, the second could be the day, you know, you go to the supermarket, you go to work, you know, drive your car, you know, A-order ruptures or whatever it might be, you just think, �Okay, I need to be ready to stand before God, and that�s why I need a mediator, and I need someone who can be an advocate for me and a defense lawyer because I�m sinful, I�m prideful, I�m self-righteous, I�m unrighteous, I�m ungodly, I�m agodly.
And that�s why we like to talk about the Lord Jesus here on No Compromise Radio. You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com, if you got a question in general, if you got a question for me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.
If you are going to just be rude and troll, then we won�t respond, but if you disagree and ask things politely, we�ll be happy to talk to you, and I�m sure we can learn things. I�m learning things. I have really been enjoying studying the Confessions and the Heidelberg and the Belgic and the Merrill Controversy and other things, and so I�m 58, but I�m learning a lot.
I don�t think I�m the same as I was a few years ago, and the same should go for all of us as we learn and grow in Christ Jesus. Some things I believe the same in terms of inerrancy or exclusivity of Christ or literal resurrection.
A lot of those things I believe the same way, but now they�re just other things that are important to me historically and thinking about law gospel and faith faithfulness and all kinds of other justification, sanctification issues.
Well, we�re in the book of Hebrews, and I have to preach Hebrews in a couple days and haven�t been preaching it for some time, so sometimes on the show, the NoCo show, I like to just talk about what I�m going to preach.
This isn�t the style of preaching, but I�m talking about these subjects out loud, and it helps me get a grip on the flow, and it helps me try to enunciate and elucidate and extrapolate. That would be bad.
Extrapolate. That�s that trajectory hermeneutic that people love to use when it comes to women in ministry and homosexuality, and here�s this trajectory. You know, Paul was on his way, but not quite there yet, and of course, 2 ,000 years later, he would be where these liberals are.
But anyway, I digress. Hebrews is essentially saying this, �In the midst of all the Jesus is great, so don�t go back. Keep believing, no matter what your trials might be which is an important message for us.
He�s saying you can�t go back to the building blocks of Judaism and somehow think that�s going to be enough, and that�s what he talks about in Hebrews chapter 6. He talks about going on to maturity, i .e., believing in the Lord Jesus as revealed in all of the Bible, and he also says there are building blocks that are fine, but they�re just Jewish.
They�re not particularly Christian, and there�s three sets of pairs, and they are found there in verses 1 and 2. Repentance from dead works and a faith toward God, right, and it should be in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then there�s a second grouping, washings and laying on of hands, and then the third grouping is resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Those are the three foundational truths that are fine, but they�re not final.
There�s a development, there�s a maturation even in the canon and progressive revelation. There�s nothing wrong with those things, they�re just partial, they�re not complete. They were pointing to something and someone, but now that we have that someone or something, why go back to the ABCs?
Why go back to the foundation? Foundations are fine, but they�re not the whole building, they�re not the walls and the roof and everything else, they�re just the foundation. And so Paul was, oops, I don�t know if it�s Paul or not, maybe it�s Paul, I don�t know.
Paul, or whoever the writer was, is, since he is alive right now, repentance from dead works, faith toward God. We looked at that last time. And then there�s a second grouping that�s fine, it�s good, but this is not distinctively Christian.
Instructions about washings and laying on of hands. Now, remember last week I said if you get Hebrews 6, 9 and understand it, I think 1 to 8 is easier to take, you know, because 1 to 8 is talking about apostasy and impossible to renew and crucifying Jesus again and can you lose your salvation.
Whatever he�s talking about in 1 through 8, it�s not about salvation. It doesn�t mean it�s wrong, but it�s not about salvation, because Hebrews 6, 9 says, �Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.
And then he begins to talk about those things. So he�s not talking about the things concerning salvation in 1 to 8, he�s talking about the building blocks. And I said on last show, you know, there are people that talk about God all the time, our founding fathers.
But it�s just God talk, it�s not distinctively Trinitarian talk, it�s not distinctively deity of Christ talk, it�s not distinctively and exclusively, �Jesus is the only Savior and Mediator. It is not anything except, well, you know, I believe in God, in God we trust.
That�s fine. We do. I mean, the nation doesn�t, but I mean, we, we do, in God we trust. And those words are full, theologically, of all kinds of things. And it�s like a zip drive of theological information that we have now because we�re reading New Testament truths into that word �God for instance.
When it comes to Psalm 102 that�s found, quoted in the book of Hebrews that Jesus is better than angels, well, that�s referring to Elohim in Psalm 102. But Elohim, the Father, Elohim the Son, Elohim the Holy Spirit.
And so we�re reading the Bible in a Christian way, that�s, that�s the point, reading the Bible in a Christian way. And why go back to the old way of Judaism? And so we�re just kind of working through all this, and the instruction about washing and laying on of hands, whatever this is, it doesn�t belong to salvation.
King James, I think, talked about baptism, doctrine of baptisms. And even there, I mean, I don�t think they�ve helped us with the word baptism, although that�s baptismoi, plurals. The doctrine of baptisms, that should give you a little hint that it�s rooted in Judaism and Old Testament ceremonial washings, right?
If you look at chapter 9, verse 10 of Hebrews, deal only with food and drinks and various washings that�s used there, and so you�ve got washings and rituals of red heifers in Numbers 19, and Old Testament Levitical ceremonial cleansings.
That�s what we�re after here. And even the priest, did he not have to be washed, and there�s the labor, and washing hands and feet, and so that we�ve got the word baptisms. And I think what you should think is a purification ceremony, and it certainly pointed to something else, right, that there needs to be a cleansing, but this is not Christian baptism.
This is a Jew that wants to go back to Judaism, and what are you going to do? I mean, did not Jesus blast the Pharisees when they did all kinds of washings, like of pots and cups? That�s the same word in Mark chapter 7, verse 8.
This has nothing to do with Christian baptism for believers professing faith in Christ Jesus. These washings that you do, that the priest does, that you do with pots and pans and hands and all that stuff, it�s not going to do you any good if you�re not going to believe in Jesus, because you�re going to need to believe in Him so that you can be washed internally.
And when it comes to laying on of hands, this is just generic Judaism. This has nothing to do with Christianity per se. And if you said, well, laying on of hands, it symbolically discusses identification, right?
So in the New Testament, if I lay hands on an elder as we�re ordaining him, we are affirming, yes, this man is meeting the qualification set forth in God�s Word. Who talked about laying on of hands in the New Testament?
It was kind of like, you know, when your dad spanked you with the laying on of hands. We�re not talking about that. So there�s an identification with laying on of hands, identifying with the person. And even if you saw someone heal another person and they would lay their hands on them, I�m identifying with you and I�m going to heal you.
But the one that probably is in view here is Leviticus 1 .4, �He shall lay his hand on the head of burnt offerings, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Leviticus 3, �If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord, lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it in front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron�s sons shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar.
Later on in chapter 3 of Leviticus, �If his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord, and lay his hand on its head, and kill it in front of the tent of meeting, and the sons of Aaron shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar.
Leviticus 16, the same language, �And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and their transgressions, all their sins.
And he shall put them on the head of the goat, and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all the iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
And so, you should be thinking identification, the symbolism there of identification. Now, it is an interesting identification where you putting your hands on the head of the sacrifice, transferring your sins, or the sins of the nation, as it were, to this animal, and then the wages of sin is death, and that animal has to pay.
That's interesting. But that's not Christianity. That's a good picture of the Father and the Son, and what happened at Calvary. And even though the goat didn't do anything wrong, the goat was the substitute.
And the iniquity of the people was imputed to the goat, placed on the goat, put in the goat's account, and it wasn't like transferred into or something. And in a similar way, we can think of the New Testament and how Jesus bears our sins in language of substitution and language of accounting.
But you need to know that, right? You can't go back to live goat stuff again. You can't go back to sacrifices again of animals, because they will not get rid of sin, right? It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to make satisfaction.
You just can't do it. Transferring sins to the Lamb, yes, if Jesus is the one that you're thinking about. When Christ is the Lamb and you identify yourself by faith, yes, that's what we're after, and that's what goes on when you see in Revelation 5, a loud voice did these myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands say, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wisdom and wealth and might and honor and glory and blessing.
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.
And the four living creatures said, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. Of course, if you're thinking about laying on of hands, we can see where that's all pointing to, but you can't go back to the ABCs once you know all that, right?
And then he gives the third pair, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And you say, well, we believe in those. Yes, of course. Well, repentance? Yes. Faith? Yes. Washings, you know, in the Old Testament?
Yes. Laying on of hands? Yes. Resurrection of the dead? Yes. Eternal judgment? Yes. But these are all, again, Jewish people would believe these. If I talked about these six things in a Jewish synagogue, nobody would kick me out.
But if I talked about faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ and how these washings and laying on of hands and everything else are irrelevant now because we have the lamb here, and then of course, you know, that's, I'm talking about when he was on earth and then he was raised and now he's in heaven interceding.
That's true. Resurrection of the dead? Yes. We believe in the resurrection of the dead. Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. Pharisees believed all these things. They're not believing that Jesus is the Messiah, the ones that killed him.
Of course, you say Sadducees denied the resurrection of the dead. That's true. But the point is here, think about what the Jews believed. Not a whole lot of talk in the Old Testament about resurrection, but there was some.
Daniel 12 too. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall be awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Now the Jews knew that there was going to be a resurrection.
They understood from the Old Testament, but now we have a better understanding, especially in light of the New Testament and in light of the Lord Jesus Christ. So why go back? You can't go back. The resurrection doctrine was true, is true.
Abraham believed in the resurrection, right, that God is able to raise men even from the dead. But we need distinctively Christian resurrection, i .e., like the resurrection, the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, Hebrews 13 10.
Yeah, there's a resurrection of the dead, and it's all pointed to the one who caused it all, who is the supreme firstborn of the dead. And then there's eternal judgment, and these are all tied together, right?
Repentance and faith tied together. That's the first pair, instructions, laying on of hands, that's the second pair, and then the third pair, resurrection and eternal judgment. I mean, if you're going to be resurrected from the dead, then you're going to face judgment.
And this is true, but you've got to be thinking about Jesus when it comes to this. Eternal judgment, if you're going to be condemned eternally or vindicated eternally, you're going to need Jesus. You're going to need the one who is the sin-bearer and the one who is the perfect law-obeyer.
And this is all language of Hebrews 6, 1 to 2, language of building blocks, foundations, you can't go back to that. And I think Acts 18 with Apollos gives us a good example about how it's not wrong, but it's not complete because Jesus has arrived.
Acts 18, And that was the issue. He didn't know about the baptism of Jesus that He commanded after His resurrection. There were some things that He just didn't know. What He said was true, but there were things about His death, burial, and resurrection He didn't know, and now He was pointed in the right direction.
And as a Christian, we have an important lesson here. We have foundations, we have building blocks, but you ought to make sure you read the Bible in a way that understands progressive revelation, that God is giving more revelation, fuller revelation as the text goes on.
And that revelation needs to be fully and finally understood in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the end, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 1, 1. He's the telos, He's the one who everything it's about.
And I think what happens is if you think that progressive revelation means a movement from error to truth, you would be wrong. It's from truth to truth, as Mottyer said, lesser to greater, provisional to permanent, inadequate to the perfect.
But you can't read the Bible the same way because of the New Testament. You can't go backwards. You can't say, well, you know what, now that we know more, let's act like we don't. You can't, because the direction of revelation, it's just not a progression, but that direction is progressively toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible is about the salvation of the world by Christ Jesus. And how do you read the Old Testament? You better read the Old Testament the way Jesus Himself told us to read it, and that is it's about Him, things concerning Himself.
If you read the Bible, the Old Testament, in a way that says, you know what, the only thing this is about is Israel. Jesus said in John 5 .39, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about the nation of Israel.
No, about me, He said. Christ is at the center of Scripture. You say, well, you know, I think that's kind of reading Him in. No, but as R. Scott Clark says, we're refusing to read Him out of it. And that's why when you even hear some of these poems, they're helpful to remind ourselves that the Old Testament is about the Lord Jesus.
In Genesis, Herbert Lockyer said He's the seed of the woman. In Exodus, He's the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, He's the atoning sacrifice. In Numbers, He is the smitten rock. In Deuteronomy, He is the prophet.
In Joshua, He is the captain of the Lord's hosts. In Judges, He is the deliverer. In Ruth, He is the heavenly Kingsman. In 1 Samuel Kings Chronicles, He's the promised King. In Nehemiah, He's the restorer of the nation.
In Esther, He is the advocate. In Job, He is my Redeemer. In Psalms, He is my Savior. In Proverbs, He is my wisdom. In Ecclesiastes, He is my goal. In Song of Solomon, He is my satisfier. In the Prophets, He is the coming Prince of Peace.
In the Gospels, He is God in Christ Jesus come to redeem. In Acts, He is alive in the church. In Epistles, He is Christ at the Father's right hand, and in Revelation, He is the mighty conqueror. That's how you have to read the Bible, seeing the supremacy of God's Son in the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
And that's really what's going on here. You need to read the Bible, the Old Testament, like it's a Christian book, because that's what Jesus said. And you say, well, what about this and what about that?
I'm just telling you, that's what Jesus said. And however you're going to read the Old Testament, I think Jesus is the one that should tell you how you should interpret it. And at least, if you're my classical dispensationalist friends, at least big picture, it's gotta point to Jesus.
To what degree? Well, we'll have to talk about that another day, but here, we see what Jesus is having this writer of the book of Hebrews to do, and that is building blocks, all pointing to Jesus, foundations, all setting the stage for Jesus, and then now you have Jesus, you can't go backward.
And sometimes we think this is all fine and dandy, but how are we ever gonna do this? And it says now in chapter six, verse three, and this we will do if God permits. That's amazing. We just blow by that verse, don't we?
Do you blow by that verse? And this we will do if God permits. I mean, it's not in your power to believe, to come to maturation so that you will believe. You are responsible, but you cannot do it. This is just not some throwaway line.
This is something that you can only do if God permits. And sometimes He doesn't permit, right? Because what does Isaiah say? He's blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.
There's a form of unbelief that we're gonna see in the next few verses that just shut everything down, and it's shut down because it's primarily who God is. There is a press toward maturity, but that press needs to be, Lord, open my eyes.
Lord, give me mercy. Lord, I know you can, would you please? I know you can, but would you please? Would you help me believe? I know you could do that. Would you grant me faith? I know you could, but you don't owe it to me.
I mean, this begs the question, does God owe anything to anyone? Well, He owes justice, but sometimes He has that justice poured out on His Son as that Son steps in for and intercepts the judgment that we have earned because Jesus didn't earn any of that judgment, and so when it comes to the Bible, when it comes to the Old Testament, you have to read that knowing that the New Testament has been revealed, right?
That's maybe my big point. Can't just read it like there's no New Testament. You have to read it like there is a New Testament and read the New Testament in light of the Old or the Old in light of the New.
I think the latter has to be. This is what the writer of Hebrews is doing. Read the Old Testament in light of the New. These are all intros. Read the Old Testament in light of the New. Well, my name is Mike Gabendroth.
This is No Compromise Radio. I'm No Compromise Radio. How about that? And you can always write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. I'm encouraged by those who do listen. Tell your friends if you would.
And if you like a show, I just got an email from a lady and she said, here's the show I'd like to have you do, talking about what to wear at church or something like that. So we'll do some of those shows coming up.
So again, you can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you want one of the books, Sexual Fidelity or Evangelical White Lies or things that go up in the church, that's found at nocompromiseradio .com.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.