Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 4)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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September 21, 2008

Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 5)

00:01: Well, it is great to see a packed sanctuary this morning. I was told years ago that if I keep preaching the way
00:07: I'm preaching, I'm going to drive everyone to leave. And people love to hear the
00:13: Word of God, and so I'm... Oh, there is Lou. Good to see you, Lou. How are you?
00:19: Good. Well, I'm going to dispense with the formalities. It's hot in here, so this jacket's got to go. I've been studying a little bit of military history, especially the
00:36: Battle of Iwo Jima. And the American soldiers come in, and they get to the beach, and there are no Japanese soldiers there.
00:43: But as the Americans work their way in through the nooks and crannies, there's trouble.
00:51: And the author said that in frontal assaults, the two highest casualty rates for the
00:58: American soldiers were those who held the flamethrowers and those who held the bazookas.
01:04: And I think the book of Hebrews is like a flamethrower or a bazooka.
01:12: And sadly, in evangelical circles, it's almost too hard to understand for some, they think, or it's too hard on them, they think, so it's the last book they ever study.
01:24: And let's turn our Bibles to the book of Hebrews as we continue our five - to six -week overview of the book of Hebrews.
01:33: We are looking at the book of Hebrews at a fairly fast pace, and then we'll be back to the
01:42: Sermon on the Mount. I just love the book of Hebrews. I love just digging into it and finding out what
01:48: God thinks. Can you imagine that God of the universe has revealed His mind to us?
01:54: He did not have to tell us anything. We would look at the stars and the moon and the sun and babies, and we would think,
02:00: God is wise, God is powerful, God is incredible, yet He has told us exactly how He thinks.
02:06: And how He has thought in this particular book, through His inspired servant, whether that's Paul or Barnabas or anyone else,
02:12: He's thought to tell us this, that Jesus Christ is superior.
02:19: And that Jesus Christ is superior over anything, anyone, or any kind of institution.
02:26: Jesus is superior. So if you have to say, what's this book about? It's about Jesus' superiority. And He starts off by saying,
02:33: Jesus is superior to the prophets, chapter 1, 1 -3. And we know prophets are wonderful, we know they're great, but Jesus is superior to the prophets.
02:42: Then He moves on and He says, Jesus is superior not just to the prophets, but He's superior over angelic beings.
02:49: They are wonderful. They are supernatural. You would be tempted like John in the book of Revelation to worship them if you're not careful.
02:57: Yet they are created beings, and Jesus is superior to them. The writer goes on to say that Jesus isn't just superior to prophets, to angels, but He's also superior to Moses.
03:10: And this is important because when the writer is writing to the Hebrews, to the book of Hebrews, the
03:16: Jews would certainly have a high regard for Moses. And here the writer systematically shows why
03:22: Jesus is even better than the prophet, small p, Moses. Then we work to the fourth entity, our person that Jesus is superior to, and that is
03:34: Aaron. Jesus is superior to Aaron. He's superior to the Levitical priesthood. Therefore, in chapter 8, as we saw last week,
03:43: Jesus is superior, number 5, to the Old Covenant. Jesus is superior to the
03:49: Old Covenant. Well, last week we talked a lot about blood, and I don't do props on Sunday morning, but I was just handed one pint of blood.
03:58: A person came to me and said, this is a pint of blood, but it's not real blood. It's Halloween blood. And it said, you know, you're not supposed to drink it.
04:05: It's frightfully realistic. But it's sitting right over there if you want to look at it after the sermon.
04:10: But I figured I better not start with some kind of, you know, funky church growth things because what would I do next week?
04:15: Oh, He showed us blood this week. What would He do the next week? But in chapter 9, we see this theme, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood.
04:24: I talked to three kids last week. One said I said blood 132 times. The other two said
04:29: I said blood 133 times. So right in between 132 and 133 times, the word blood.
04:36: And we were learning that in the midst of this discussion of Levitical priesthood and the Old Covenant, that there had to be blood shed.
04:44: And without the remission of blood, there's no forgiveness. I mean, sorry, well, that would be the same as well.
04:49: But without any kind of blood spilled, there'd be no remission of sins. And so this is a very bloody chapter, chapter 9.
04:56: Jesus is a better priest. Jesus is the sacrifice and the priest. And so that gets us all the way moved up to chapter 10.
05:04: If you feel lost, you can get the last three messages. But today we want to focus in on chapter 10, 11, and maybe 12.
05:14: But I don't think I'm going to make it to 13. So we're just going to go at a high pace. My goals are these.
05:19: I want you to understand Hebrews better. I want you to think Jesus is superior. As a matter of fact, I could even stop now and make it very practical for you.
05:28: Do you really think Jesus is superior? If I looked at your checkbook, would your checkbook reveal the superiority of Christ?
05:39: If I looked at what you watch on the Internet, would your observations reflect that Jesus is superior?
05:48: If I look how you look at the lost and evangelize our lack of evangelism, would you say to yourself,
05:54: I think the way I deal with the lost shows Jesus as superior. It's very practical.
06:01: This isn't just theology and head knowledge, but God wants us to realize that Jesus is superior and those thoughts should change our lives.
06:09: If they just change our thoughts, is that enough? Is that pleasing to the Lord? Obviously not.
06:15: And so we come to theology, but theology that is driven to make us into different people, to make us love sin less and to love righteousness more.
06:28: If you'll turn to Hebrews chapter 10, that's where we are, Hebrews chapter 10. And as we're still in this section that talks about Jesus is superior to the old covenant, chapter 10 is going to highlight this, that there's a once for all sacrifice.
06:42: Chapter 10 is going to show you that it's once and done versus the Levitical system over and over and over.
06:49: The priest in the morning and at night sacrificing and then Yom Kippur even more.
06:55: But for Jesus, it's once for all. It's once and done. It's only once and forever once.
07:01: That's the focus here. So the new covenant is going to be better than the old covenant, not just because there's a better mediator, chapter 8, not just because the mediator is the better sacrifice, chapter 9, but that this mediator takes care of things once and they're done.
07:17: Got it? So chapter 8, he's a better mediator. The new covenant's better because the mediator's better.
07:23: Chapter 9, the new covenant's better because the sacrifice is better. And chapter 10, the sacrifice of once and done makes this new covenant way better than the old.
07:33: Who wants to run back to the old covenant? And for those of you that have read Leviticus lately, you will be glad that you don't have to run back to such a covenant.
07:42: Look in chapter 10 with me, verse 1, to see how inadequate these old sacrifices used to be.
07:49: Again, with the backdrop, once and for all, Jesus' sacrifice, daily, these other sacrifices.
07:56: Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1, and again, I'm not going to take three verses and just exposit those. We're going to go through chapter 10 as fast as we can, 11, maybe 12.
08:06: For the law, Hebrews 10, 1, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never, you might want to underline that, can never, ever, ever, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually, year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
08:30: They had to do these sacrifices, the Greek would say, without interruption, over and over and over again.
08:37: If you could be perfect in God's eyes, declared righteous in God's eyes, forgiven by a blood atonement in God's eyes by an animal's blood sacrifice, then why do you have to do it over and over and over and over?
08:52: The repetition should drive you to say that's inadequate. It's logical.
08:57: Look at verse 2. The thoughts just flow sequentially with perfect logic. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered?
09:06: If one was perfect to sacrifice the animal, and you could be saved, then why do another one?
09:12: Because of the worshippers having been once cleansed, would no longer have conscience of consciousness of sins.
09:21: It's one thing to sacrifice over and over and over, but when you're in the Old Covenant, you still feel guilty.
09:27: Your conscience is still knocking at the door. The animal's dead, but what about you? What about your conscience?
09:34: I could ask it in the form of a question. Does a sacrifice that needs constant repetition really atone?
09:42: Over and over and over. And if you were a young adult or a young kid, you'd say, it just keeps happening every year.
09:48: Must it really work? And that's... I was going to say Paul's argument. Probably Paul, but who knows?
09:56: Look at verse 3. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year.
10:03: There is some good to this because you're reminded that you're a sinner. Matter of fact, I love this section right here, chapter 10, verse 3.
10:12: This word, reminder, is only used two other times. Let me give you one, and I think you'll know where the other one's found.
10:20: Do this in remembrance of me. Sound familiar? When Jesus takes the
10:26: Passover and transforms it into this wonderful New Covenant, Lord's Table, Lord's Supper, communion.
10:33: He said, do this in remembrance of me. That's exactly the same word here in Hebrews 10, verse 3.
10:42: Do this Old Testament sacrifice in remembrance that there is sin to be paid for, that you're a sinner.
10:49: Do this in remembrance of me. Do this in a remembrance that you still will have to do it next year, and there's a greater sacrifice that will one day come.
10:59: Keep on remembering over and over and over. By the way, verse 4, it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
11:09: It just pushes you to look forward. It makes you think, you know, it's not a bull or a goat, because I'm not a bull or a goat.
11:15: I have to have a sacrifice that's in like kind. I need a once and for all sacrifice.
11:21: I need a sacrifice that's so great that it deals with all my sins once and forever.
11:27: And if you're going to try to prove that in the Bible, you would say, well, let me just use some Bible verses, and that's exactly what the writer does.
11:32: Verse 5 to 18, there's one sacrifice for sins. And if you wanted to try to clinch a nail or a bolt by bending down the protruded edge, you'd do that literally.
11:45: But he does it figuratively here by using Scripture. Therefore, when he comes into the world, when the Messiah comes, he says, this is
11:52: Jesus talking, right from Psalm 40, sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.
12:00: This is all going to tell us there's this one sacrifice of Jesus. We don't need masses every week.
12:05: We don't need to re -sacrifice. There's once for all. Verse 6, in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure.
12:14: Then I said, behold, I have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God. What was the will of the
12:21: Father for the Son to do? To have one perfect life, one perfect sacrifice. Jesus, not any blemishes, not any sin.
12:29: He's above reproach, without reproach, and he sacrificed one time. And God said, I'm going to give you this body that will be sacrificed.
12:38: And he quotes Psalm 40 again. And if you look down at verse 9, it says, then he says, behold,
12:44: I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. Now if you're not careful, you're going to just read past that and you're not going to get the good stuff out.
12:53: So when I was a kid, my father would have us wash the car and then he'd always give us something to take the little beads of water off that could contain a little dirt.
13:02: And that was an animal skin. And what was that animal skin called that we had to put on top of the car? A chamois.
13:07: My father would always say, when you're done with the chamois, you need to what? Wring it out. Let me wring this meaning out here so you get it and you will not forget it.
13:15: I challenge you, you're never going to forget this right now. Now here's the context again. Jesus is superior, so why do you want to run back to Judaism?
13:24: Why would you want to run back to any Islam, any other religion? But here in the context,
13:31: He's better than Judaism. Therefore, He's better than the Old Covenant. He's better than Mosaic Law.
13:37: He's better than all those things. How is He better? Well, He's a better mediator, chapter 8. He's a better sacrifice, chapter 9.
13:42: And here we're going to see that it's a once and for all thing. And to make this once and for all,
13:48: He's not only going to make it better as a sacrifice Himself, but He's going to do something to the
13:54: Old Covenant. What would He do to the Old Covenant? Verse 9. He takes away.
14:01: Used of things, it means to take away. This word used of people, it means to what?
14:09: Here's what I want you to remember. Used of things, it means to take away, to remove. Used of people, it's used for this, murder, assassination, execution.
14:23: If the Old Covenant was a person, Jesus would have murdered the person. That's the language.
14:28: He would have gotten rid of it. It's not just once and for all because I'm better. It's because I'm so great,
14:35: I'm going to make sure you don't try to run back to that. Certainly in 70 AD, Titus helped the cause.
14:42: But here we see before the temple is destroyed, Jesus is the one by His own flesh, murders and assassinates and gets rid of by violence, battle this
14:52: Old Covenant, the First Covenant. And then He does it, in order, do you see the text?
14:58: To establish the Second. For those of you that want to play around with Messianic Judaism, oil and water do not mix.
15:08: Old Covenant and New Covenant do not mix. You can't take new wine and put it in an old what?
15:14: Wine skin, Jesus comes along and He not only establishes the New Covenant, but He does what to the old?
15:20: If it was a person, He murdered it. He did away with it. It's over.
15:27: Verse 10, By this we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body, not of bulls, not of goats, not of anything else, but the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
15:37: How often? Every Sunday. Once for all.
15:44: You might want to underline that. Did you know mystery religions? Did you know pagan religions have weekly offerings?
15:51: And they keep slaying the same things over and over and over? Yes, Judaism initially did that as well.
15:59: But show me a pagan God who has wrath and I will show you a weekly, monthly, daily sacrifice.
16:08: And here the writer says in verse 11, And every priest stands, how often? Daily, ministering and offering time after time, day after day, the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
16:24: Who wants to run back to Judaism? You can't. Look at how great Jesus is.
16:30: But He having offered how many sacrifices? One sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God.
16:41: That is absolutely amazing. Verse 11, by the way, stands ministering. That word is where we get the word liturgy.
16:49: How many people know what a liturgy is? It used to be a word that meant public service. So I used to be a disc jockey back in college and it was a non -profit, non -commercial radio station and we had to give five
17:01: PSAs an hour. Public service announcement. Well, this public service that the priest had to do were within this old covenant system and they did things, they ministered in such a way on a regular basis, we get the word liturgy.
17:16: Here is a liturgy day after day after day. It's an ongoing liturgy built into the system.
17:23: It can't do its work. But Jesus, when He does its work, what does He do? Verse 12, He does something that as we've learned earlier in this book two times,
17:31: He sat down. You don't sit down if you've got to keep sacrificing day after day over and over and over.
17:40: For by one offering, He just keeps hammering over and over and over. Verse 14, the first word in the
17:46: Greek sentence is one. One, by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
17:53: Why run back to start killing animals? And then He confirms His interpretation of Psalm 40 by giving the new covenant from Jeremiah 31.
18:04: No more animal sacrifices. They're done. When Jesus sacrifices
18:10: Himself, verse 17 is in play. And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember till tomorrow morning.
18:16: I will remember till Leviticus 16 and the day of atonement. I'll remember till the next day, till the next day. No, they're all gone.
18:26: Verse 18, now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Forget the bulls and the goats.
18:33: Now, I have a question for you. Chapters 1 through 10, 18 are the theological part of this book.
18:40: Chapter 10, verse 19 and following are the application sections. If you know Jesus as the superior prophets to angels, to Moses, to Aaron, to the new covenant, what would you tell a congregation?
18:51: What would you say to those people? Well, we'll find out. I wouldn't say these things, but the writer does.
19:00: If Jesus is superior, so what? And let's find out what
19:06: He says first of all. Hebrews 10, verse 19. Therefore, based on chapters 1, 2, 3 all the way through 10, 18, therefore,
19:16: I don't know what you would tell someone, but here's the inspired apostle saying this.
19:23: Brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, we have confidence, nobody else had confidence, they were all afraid, by a new and living way which
19:33: He inaugurated for us through the veil that is the flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, what would you say?
19:40: This is all setting up, it's all one long Greek sentence, it's all one long English sentence, 19, 20, 21, 22, what do you tell people after Jesus is superior?
19:48: Here's the first thing you tell them, especially if there's unbelievers in the congregation like then and like today, what do you tell the people?
19:55: Then let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
20:05: In other words, you need to be born again, you need to get saved. You aren't going to be able to run back to the
20:13: Levitical priesthood, you can't go find a bull, you are a sinner and how do you stand before God on that day?
20:18: There's only one way, it's through Christ and you better be saved. If I was a commentator,
20:25: I'd say it like this, a loyal response to Christ is the logical correlate of the magnitude of Christ's redemptive accomplishment,
20:33: William Lane. What's a better way to say that? You better be born again, you're going to die and then stand before God.
20:40: If you think you can have access to God through bulls and goats, you are mistaken. I'm certain this place packed out today, there are some people who are not born again, you must be born again, you must believe on the
20:51: Lord Jesus Christ and His final sacrifice. Not plus good works, not plus psychology, not plus baptism, not plus communion, not plus anything.
21:02: My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
21:09: That's the response. If He's better, then you should believe, you should repent and believe.
21:16: You can't just go on, draw near. the entire
21:22: Old Testament system was set up in such a way so you couldn't get close. How dare you even get so close?
21:29: If you're a Gentile, you can't go there. If you're a woman, you can't go there. If you're not a priest, you can't go there. If you're not a high priest, you can't go there.
21:35: Stay away, stay away. And by the way, all the people were very glad that they could stay away because the closer you got, the closer you got to extermination.
21:43: Ask Nadab and Abihu. But now, since Jesus has done all this,
21:49: He sat down in this royal seat of honor by God the Father. His atonement work is done.
21:56: Then He says, now you can come. You can draw near to God because of what Jesus has done.
22:02: Who could run into God's presence? You can't run into God's presence anymore than you could go run into George Bush's presence if you drove down the street in a motorcade.
22:11: Because there are all these things to keep you away and George Bush is not thrice holy God. But here, everything's turned right side up.
22:18: Now draw near. Give confidence. It's fascinating.
22:25: Through a living and new way. And then to others who are Christians, what does He say?
22:31: Verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promises faithful.
22:37: Some in the congregation of the Hebrews, they weren't saved. He says, you must be born again. Others were doubting.
22:43: They were wavering. Literally the text says they were leaning. They were leaning up against because they needed support.
22:49: And they were wavering. And they were leaning against probably Levitical law. They were leaning against my old sacrifices.
22:56: They were leaning against if I eat the right foods, I'm okay. They're leaning against all these other things. Don't waver.
23:01: Don't lean. Believe. Hold fast. And then what does
23:08: He say? I would never say this. Jesus is superior. Unbelievers, you better believe. Those sitting on the fence, you can trust
23:14: Jesus. And to you believers in the congregation, what would He say? If you think Jesus is superior, what should you do?
23:23: Then He says something wild. I'd never say this. Verse 24. If you're a Christian and you believe that Jesus is superior, this is what the writer says to you.
23:31: Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Doesn't that strike you as odd?
23:38: It does to me. Kind of counterintuitive. If you believe Jesus is superior, then I want you to act like a catalyst in the middle of the congregation.
23:46: Kind of a paroxysm. Some kind of... I have it written down here somewhere.
23:52: I'm just trying to think of what it is. Some kind of stimulation. Some kind of incitement. Some kind of provoking one another to do love and good deeds.
24:01: To love God. To do good deeds to other people. If you really believe Jesus is superior, you're going to be used as some kind of chemical reaction for people in here.
24:10: Matter of fact, I know what that's like because I'm not perfect at it, but God has kind of given me that ministry of agitation, if you will.
24:17: That's the word I was looking for. When you're around people and you have experience totally by grace, we sang it today, only by your mercy, only by your grace, you brought us to faith.
24:29: When you are the recipient of a costly salvation to God, but freely received by us through faith,
24:39: I think you ought to be on fire for the Lord. I think maturing Christians should say,
24:45: I like hanging out with that particular person because they spur me on. And I think those
24:50: Christians who don't want to walk with the Lord and who are struggling and acting immaturely, I think they say of this kind of person, maybe
24:58: I should sit up there in the balcony today. Oh, sorry. That was just an illustration. Some of you sat up there so our visitors could sit here.
25:05: I thank you for that. My point is this. You want to get away from those kind of people because they provoke, they incite, they're stirring people up.
25:13: And if you are lazy and you are saying, I deny the superiority of Christ in my life and ministry,
25:18: I don't want to be by you because you shame me. You incite me. You're this paroxysm that I don't need in my life.
25:26: But if you believe Jesus is superior, you ought to be an agitator here. Interesting.
25:36: This word could mean literally if you look at the root, to sharpen beside. You incite.
25:44: Doesn't this sound familiar? Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens.
25:51: The King James says, the countenance of his friend. If you really believe that Jesus Christ is superior, you are a walking chemical reaction.
26:01: And here's what we do in Christianity. Maybe it will take us eight weeks to get through Hebrews. I don't know. Unscripted.
26:08: In seminary we always try to get the professors off the notes because that was where the really juicy stuff was.
26:17: I'm thinking about seminary. I don't know what I was talking about. You say to yourself,
26:26: I can't but not serve. God has done this for me.
26:33: And I don't mean we run around and we goad people in a negative way, in a sinful way, and we're the guy that everybody wants to run from, who wants to be put over there.
26:45: But there's a godly, there's an upbeat, there's a wonderful way to watch someone who's on fire for the
26:52: Lord. New Christians especially. And if we're not careful, we as mature Christians then look back and say, you know what?
26:59: They're all excited. They're running around going crazy. And you know, the good news is they'll get over it pretty soon.
27:08: Now, should they mature? Yes. But this text says if you believe that Jesus is superior, you ought never to get over it.
27:15: You ought never to get over it. Let us consider. That, by the way, is an invitation for you to use your mind to do mental calculus.
27:22: Check. You know, diffy cues, algebra, whatever it is. Greater than prophets, greater than angels, greater than Aaron, greater than Moses, greater than New Covenant.
27:33: I dare you not to serve is what the writer's saying. How could you not? By the way, this is just acting like Jesus would act as He was around others and gave reverence to God and gave worship, excuse me, gave reverence and worship to God and caused other people to do good deeds.
27:48: He says with thoughtful perception. That's exactly what we need to do.
27:57: So, now let's go from theory to thought. Is that you? Does this describe you?
28:04: Friends, if it doesn't describe you, then I know something about your theology. And your theology, you might intellectually tell me,
28:10: I believe that Jesus is superior. But your deeds, your actions deny that. And you know what the wonderful part about this is?
28:17: Is God a gracious God who loves repentance? This is not, slam, how could you, and then you need to be out there and do something else away from us.
28:26: This is, God loves repentance. God loves this when people do it. Please, today, make it solid in your heart where you say,
28:34: God, as you have clinched my thoughts about the superiority of Jesus, help me stimulate others to do good deeds.
28:43: Today's the day. Today's the day. By the way, what does this imply?
28:49: It implies regular church attendance. It implies regular church attendance.
28:55: Look at verse 25. How are you going to be an agitator? By the way, men and women, when you do washing in the next week, in the next couple days, if you have a washer and dryer, and you put your clothes in, you put that detergent in,
29:08: I want you to leave the lid open for a minute and push on and watch what happens inside of that thing. What happens inside of that washer?
29:17: Agitate. I don't know what happens inside of here. I don't know, but I like to have some cool air agitation up here. That's what I need.
29:23: Wow! How can you agitate alone?
29:30: You can agitate alone. Look at the text. Not forsaking our own assembly together.
29:37: And you know, some do, as is the habit of some. But instead, it's just not this brute, ungodly, immature agitation.
29:48: Look at how he smooths it out here. But encouraging one another. How do you encourage one another when you do
29:55: TV church? We used to joke about that all the time. Oh, we can't get up today. We better do TV church.
30:02: What is that? By the way, usually the people on TV are bad to listen to. And all the more, you should even do this more.
30:13: Why? As you see the day drawing near, there may not be a tomorrow. So you're just going to sit back and go, well, whatever.
30:21: You know, Sunday, 8 to 12, that's for the Lord, and everything else is my time. You have 168 hours in a week.
30:30: Much of that should be spent goading others on and encouraging others. Say, well,
30:36: I don't know. It's not that big a deal. Warning number four. Remember, book of Hebrews, five things that Jesus is superior to, people, organisms.
30:46: Five warnings. Easy to remember. Five and five. Warning. If you think the
30:53: Old Covenant punished harshly, the New Covenant blows it away. This is the how much more argument.
31:01: God is not to be trifled with. And He says first, in verses 26 through 28, punishment in the
31:08: Old Covenant was horrible. But then He's going to say, it's worse than the new. Verse 26, for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, if we know chapter 1 through 10, 19, we receive this set of truth statements, and we just keep on sinning willfully, we keep saying,
31:29: I don't need Jesus as Savior. I don't need Him as Lord. I don't need Him as my sacrifice. I don't need Him for all
31:34: He has done and who He said He is. After receiving the knowledge of the truth, there what?
31:41: No longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Translation, you should be very, very afraid.
31:50: Verse 27, is there any language like this in the Bible? There's no language like this in the
31:58: Bible that has only a love God. But God's not only love, but a terrifying expectation.
32:05: You can put it on your calendar. You can look forward to it. But with terrifying expectation of judgment.
32:12: And then look at this, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
32:19: Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
32:25: By the way, if you deny the law of Moses in some way and you disobeyed and it was costing you your life, after they stoned you to death, was there an opportunity for you to repent?
32:37: Like, that's dumb. No. You could not repent. That's not dumb, that's just logical.
32:45: And that's the point here. You die without mercy on the basis of two or three testimonies.
32:50: There's no other hope. Well, how much worse is it going to be?
32:55: How much more severe is it going to be in the New Covenant? Old Covenant, temporal.
33:02: New Covenant, eternal. Look at verse 29. How much severe. You want to know if there are degrees of punishment in hell?
33:10: Found many places, but here's probably the best. How much severe. There's punishment and there's severe punishment.
33:16: Do you think He will deserve who is trampled under the foot of the Son of God and is regarded as unclean the blood of the
33:23: Covenant by which He was sanctified and has what? This is heavy language. When you say,
33:29: Jesus isn't God, Jesus isn't worthy of me following Him as Lord, Jesus didn't die in the place of sinners,
33:36: Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, Jesus was another man and He was a misguided person, that is an insult to the thrice holy
33:43: God. And here the text says, insult of the spirit of grace. And we know
33:49: Him who said, this is New Covenant, eternal punishment of the damned forever and ever and ever.
33:56: Vengeance is mine, I will repay. The Lord will judge His people.
34:03: It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. This writer does something so interestingly.
34:17: He'll challenge one minute, he'll frighten one minute, and then now he encourages.
34:24: Verse 32. He's going to encourage. Remember, there are three different kinds of people sitting in the congregation for Him.
34:31: Those who are Christians and have been suffering and they need to be told, carry on, don't quit.
34:38: There are those who are on the borderline of believing but not sure if they should and He says, you've got to believe. And then there are those who say,
34:44: Jesus is no one, He's a misguided Messiah. But for those who are
34:49: Christians, look what He says. Don't forget, you've had a good victory in the past. Remember the former days when after being enlightened,
34:56: God opened your eyes, you endured a great conflict of suffering. Partly by being made a public theater literally, a spectacle through reproaches.
35:05: They ridiculed you, they insulted you, and tribulations. You were hard pressed and by partly by becoming shares of those who were so treated.
35:14: Remember what you used to do. It was the right thing. You saw the superiority of Christ and by the
35:19: Spirit's power you acted like that. Keep going. That's right.
35:24: Good. Verse 34, For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property.
35:31: You have a real vibrant faith. This group does. Knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.
35:41: And by the way, in the past you've done that and in the future God will take care of you. Therefore, verse 35,
35:46: Do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
35:58: And he says in verse 38, Those who shrink back my soul doesn't, I don't have pleasure in him.
36:04: But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
36:11: All right, let's stop here just for a minute. I think it's probably a dumb illustration but still a good illustration.
36:17: Plus now you're thinking what I'm thinking. Excuse me. Chapter 11.
36:25: Why is chapter 11 here? If you read the end of chapter 10 and the beginning of chapter 12, you will see this is kind of like a sandwich.
36:36: I would say it was a bagel, but we're trying to get away from Old Testament illustrations. You've got the bread, chapter 10, the bread, chapter 12, and the meat in chapter 11.
36:48: And he's going to say, end of chapter 10, we don't shrink back. Beginning of chapter 12, look who we look at when we run.
36:58: In chapter 11, here are some live illustrations of other people who have done the same thing.
37:04: Chapter 11 is wonderful. How do I endure? Look at these people that have endured.
37:10: How can I keep going? Look at these people who have done it. We all have been encouraged by those saints who are older in the faith than we are, and we watch their example, and they've been through the fires of hell, as it were, and they've stayed faithful by the grace of God.
37:23: And do those people motivate you? They ought to motivate you. And he gives the means of endurance, and it's summed up by one word used 26 times in this chapter, and that word is what?
37:34: Faith. By the way, faith in the once -for -all sacrifice, not in the daily slashing of the carotid artery of the animals.
37:45: It's by faith. And by the way, many of you might forget this, and I don't want you to forget it.
37:52: Chapter 11 is the hall of faith, but it's also set up in such a way that you will not find one person in chapter 11 that somehow is right with God through Levitical sacrifice.
38:05: Don't miss that. Matter of fact, many of these examples of the faith, and we're not going to go through them all, but many are before Moses even gave the law.
38:14: In other words, look at all these people who lived by faith, and they lived by faith before even Moses came around, so you can live by faith, the just shall live by faith,
38:23: Habakkuk 2, 4, and you don't need Levitical systems. And he gives the nature of faith.
38:31: Oh, I love this. This is good encouragement. I love biographies, by the way, for two reasons, and you know the two reasons.
38:38: Reason number one, they spur me on, they agitate me, because I think to myself, if God used that piece of dirt, that piece of clay, that sinner, then
38:48: He could probably use me. And then it also makes me think that God would use somebody like that.
38:58: I guess those two are put together. I put them together in one, and they should have been two. That God would use a sinner, and that God could use a sinner.
39:05: And here, look at this great biography of the faith, this encyclopedia of heroes, men and women.
39:13: Look what he does in chapter 11. He's writing to the Hebrews, so he uses Hebrew kind of language device.
39:19: If you want to try to talk to somebody in Hebrew poetry, you give them the same thing said two different ways.
39:26: And he does that in verse 1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, said in another way, the convictions of things not yet seen.
39:35: And God is always pleased by faith. Even today He's pleased by faith. Back in those days, verse 2, for by it the men of old gained approval.
39:44: By the way, faith doesn't just look forward to the future. Faith looks back.
39:49: And look at by faith, we can look back to when time began. By faith we understand, verse 3, that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
40:01: Somebody this week said to me, well, you know, Big Bang, and how can you prove it? Big Bang. And I typed in Hebrews 11 .3, and they said, well, that's all fine, but, you know, where did
40:09: Adam get his belly button? Some other stupid thing, you know, can't answer the question, so, you know, let's do something else.
40:16: Oh, question. Why no Adam and Eve here? Don't you think you talk about, I think Adam and Eve are in heaven, don't you?
40:23: I think God killed the animal in their place, covered them with the skin. I can't,
40:29: I could prove that, but I can't prove that they're in heaven, but I think they're in heaven, but why would He leave them out? Why would, why would the writer of Hebrews leave
40:37: Adam and Eve out? It seemed like you'd start with Adam and Eve, because Adam and Eve didn't have any faith.
40:45: They saw. They heard. God was there. They didn't even have to have faith.
40:51: They could see. They could hear. And then he just gives these general history illustrations.
40:57: Abel. And look at how each one starts, verse 4, by faith. Abel. Later in verse 4, through faith.
41:05: And every time you see faith, I want you to go, this is the faith chapter, but also you could write underneath faith, not
41:11: Levitical sacrifices, not the old covenant, not killing all these animals. There's no blood here of other animals.
41:20: Verse 5, by faith, Enoch. By the way, verse 6 could apply to all these people.
41:27: Without faith it is what? Impossible to please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek
41:36: Him. And now these illustrations of people who were faithful to help us see that we have to endure, we have to keep going.
41:44: By faith. Noah. Boy, that was an interesting example of faith. It never even rained on the earth before.
41:51: Build an ark by faith. 120 years of work. There are some patriarchs. These are pre -Moses as well.
41:58: Verse 8, Abraham. By faith, Abraham. Verse 9, by faith. Verse 11, by faith,
42:05: Sarah. All, verse 13, these died in the hope of bulls and goats' blood.
42:13: No. They didn't do that. Verse 17, by faith, Abraham.
42:21: Verse 20, by faith, Isaac. Verse 21, by faith, Jacob. See any kind of pattern here?
42:27: By faith, Joseph. Verse 22, Moses even had faith. How's Moses saved?
42:33: He was granted faith and then Moses exercised that. When he was born, verse 23, he was hidden for three months by his parents, et cetera.
42:39: Verse 24, by faith, Moses. Verse 27, he left Egypt by faith. He kept the
42:45: Passover by faith. Verse 28, verse 29, he passed through the Red Sea with his people by faith.
42:52: Not by Levitical law. That's the polemic. That's the argument. And there was even people from the nation who lived by faith.
42:58: Verse 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell. By faith, verse 31,
43:04: Rahab, the harlot, did not perish. And then all these others. He says, I could go on and on.
43:10: Verse 32, what more shall I say? For time will tell me if I tell.
43:16: Okay, stop there just for a second. We have this group of scholars, alleged scholars, that keep trying to tell us that a woman wrote
43:22: Hebrews. Women do all kinds of wonderful things and without them, we're lost.
43:28: Even in this day and age of kind of a patriarchal society, Paul at the end of Romans, as he says to 24 different people, if my numbers serve me right, eight of them he commends are women.
43:39: But here it's very simple. When he says, what time will tell me if I tell? I tell is masculine.
43:46: And so he says, masculine, I'm, whoever wrote this, we know is inspired of God, number one, and number two is a man.
43:52: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Everyone, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.
44:03: For you kids today, we're not counting blood, we're counting faith. Not Levitical system.
44:09: You say, yeah, but you know, these people are frail. They fail. Well, chapter 12, we've got to wrap up.
44:16: Chapter 12, you want the ultimate motivation for endurance. You want the ultimate person to look at.
44:23: You need to focus on who Jesus is. This is how you're encouraged. It's not wrong to look at other saints.
44:29: It's not wrong to even find a disciple or to say, I want to imitate their faith, but this is the one. He is the one.
44:36: This is not just another example. This is the ultimate example. Therefore, since we have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, by the way, this is not like the current song or the old songs that basically show all these saints up in the football stadium, soccer stadium, and they're all up there going, go,
44:56: Mike, go. Abraham's not up in heaven with Adam and Jephthah and Samson and all these guys saying to you, that's not what it's talking about.
45:10: By the way, they don't care what's happening to you because they know God is having everything exactly according to His plan happen to you.
45:18: But we've got this great cloud of witnesses that all beg the question. They walk by faith and God was faithful.
45:27: And since we've got that, get rid of everything. What's the context? Let us lay aside of every encumbrance like the
45:33: Levitical law. Get rid of it. Don't tell me that you need to go back and add a couple of things.
45:40: Remember, Jesus murdered that old covenant. We don't need it hanging around our leg when we run a race.
45:47: I've only run one marathon in my life and I didn't need some kind of shackle around my leg like the
45:55: Levitical system and all the knives and all the blood and all the containers and the sin.
46:01: Let's get rid of the sin which so easily entangles us. It could mean a lot of things but I think the context is the sin that says
46:08: I've got to do something for my salvation. I've got to do something to be right with God. It is done by God for us.
46:14: Get rid of it all and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us like these in chapter 11.
46:21: And the only way you do it is look straight ahead. Verse 2. Fixing our eyes on Jesus.
46:27: As Luther called the beginner and completer of faith. The author, the originator translated by one the prince of our faith.
46:37: And look at how he runs. Whom for the joy set before him endured the cross.
46:44: He's the one that should motivate us. Look what Jesus did. How can we not respond with anything less than faith and running the race?
46:51: Jesus despising the shame has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He says you're tired.
46:59: You're weary. You're persecuted. He says in verse 3 our last verse of the day.
47:05: For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
47:20: Interestingly, let me read Gromacky. When it says consider him
47:26: Please listen. I know it's hot and we're almost done. Consider. Quote It is a compound word with a literal translation to reason up.
47:37: The English analogy is a transliteration of the Greek word. The readers are thus exhorted to construct a mental analogy of their trials with the sufferings of Christ on the cross.
47:51: The challenge then was to work through the crucifixion experience detail by detail adding up all that Christ endured in order to provide salvation.
48:04: And when you with calculation in your mind look at what happened to Jesus not just at the hands of men but as the
48:11: Father turned his back on him as he simultaneously poured out his full cup of wrath on the
48:16: Son. You analyze that a little bit and remember what's going on. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
48:22: And you look at that and you say in spite of my unbelieving spouse in spite of my finances in spite of my job in spite of my bad decisions in spite of my immature faith in spite of what the world says in spite of my inadequacies in spite of the church isn't perfect in spite of all these things
48:40: I'm going to look to Christ and I have to say to myself I have to worship him. I have to serve him.
48:47: I'm weary. I'm losing heart. But there's a remedy. Show me someone who's weary show me somebody who's losing heart and I'll show that person a remedy.
48:57: The remedy is who Christ is. Christ is the analogy.
49:03: Christ is the one who we look at and say look at what he's done. That's why at this church we sing about the cross we preach about the cross and that's why
49:10: Paul says I have determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ even him crucified.
49:17: Jesus is superior. My exhortation to you is that you would ask
49:23: God to show his superiority in your life. Next week we'll look at discipline and some other things.
49:33: If you believe Jesus is superior it will show. Does it?
49:40: Let's pray. Thank you Lord for our time in the word. Thank you that it's just a wonderful epistle packed full of these truths.
49:50: And Lord we as a church don't want to be like those in chapter 5. Who should already be teachers even of the book of Hebrews.
49:58: But we're too immature. We would like to be mature. We would like to have your spirit so stir us and agitate us that we would be mature in our faith and therefore serve others.
50:09: Lord what a wonderful problem you've given us at this church. Packed. No parking.
50:15: No issues. And Lord you should give us no remedies rather.
50:21: And Lord now we've all been enclosed in this small area. Plenty of opportunities now for you to display your glory.
50:27: And I pray that you would display your glory as we would agitate in an encouraging way one another.
50:34: I pray for the visitors that you'd quickly let them have ministries here at the church. I pray for the old saints here who are tired and weary and just kind of want to give in and coast.
50:44: I pray Lord that your spirit might work through even the book of Hebrews. And I pray for those who are here today who aren't
50:50: Christians. Living in sin. Living in states of unrighteousness. I pray that you would arrest them as Pastor Dave says.
50:58: I pray that you would shake them up. I pray that you would not grant them sleep nor slumber nor one minute's thought of respite outside of the finished work of Christ Jesus the resurrected
51:09: King. Father would you save many today and would you shake up the rest. And Lord I would pray looking back that today would be the day where Bethlehem Bible Church changed.