Hebrews 5 -- Jesus the High Priest (Part 3)

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.

The Pilgrim's Progress as a Picture of Christian Maturity

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is�oh, it�s Saturday night in real time here in beautiful downtown Burbank, and I regularly go to the church on Friday nights or Saturday nights and then kind of go over my message a little bit.

It�s good to be able to hear it out loud. I�m trying to do a little Facebook Live for the NoCo group. I don�t know how that will work out. Let�s see what else is happening around here. I think it�s been a week since I�ve done shows.

Friel asked me to guest host this coming Monday and Tuesday. I record both shows on Monday, and I�m happy for that. I guess people are on, so that�s good. Mark and Steve, Stephen, how�s your job at Chick-fil-A going?

That�s what I want to know. I don�t know why I don�t get any gift certificates. Come on. Who am I? Let�s see. What else is happening? We have an email, info at nocompromiseradio .com. In the old days, we used to get all kinds of emails, and those emails were usually, how could you, how should you, would you, forget you.

And now the emails are typically, we�re at a church, and should we leave, or something like that. But anyway, many of you are readers, and I�m thankful for that. And when you think of Christian books outside of the Bible, what book goes through your mind?

Now, don�t you dare say purpose-driven church or purpose-driven life. Remember purpose-driven church? That came out before that. I hope you say, �The Pilgrim�s Progress. I want to talk a little bit about, as Warren Wearsby said, �Pilgrims should progress.

That�s Hebrews 5. So if you have your Bibles, it�s Hebrews 5, 11 through 14. We�re talking about Christian maturity. And if you are a pilgrim, if God has made you a Christian, you should progress. Now that Christian allegory, written I think around 1678, had a longer title.

I don�t know why I�m breathing hard today. Maybe I�m nervous because I�m on Facebook Live with the two watchers. It says I can bring people on camera, but I don�t want to do that. You know how Friel does the live radio, but you can see him too.

So I don�t know if you want to watch, but I do have this now. This is the new drink of choice here for NOCO. This is the Pure Protein, 35 grams. This is called �Your Wife�s Out of Town, and You Need to Have Dinner.

That�s what that�s called in a banana. But the original title of Pilgrim�s Progress by John Bunyan was, �The Pilgrim�s Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream.

And I, according to my research, found out that this book has never been out of print since it first was written in English. When I was in Bedford, England, I went to the place where Bunyan was, and they think, �You know, the jail�s over here, and here�s Vanity Fair.

It is a fascinating read. If you have not read The Pilgrim�s Progress, you ought to read it. In 1658, Bunyan had been married for 10 years by this time. He was 30, and his wife died, and he had four children, and one of those children was blind.

A year later, he marries Elizabeth, and she would take care of those children. And she had some miscarriages, and they had some children of their own. Bunyan was thrown into jail in the county prison for violations in 1664, and he basically wanted to preach on his own.

He didn�t want to go through the rules of the Church of England. And for 12 years, while he could, James just said, �Don�t be nervous, brother. And is it Sherry or Sherry? She just said, �Hello from Minneapolis.

And Mark said he has a pizza when his wife is out of town. �Hey, it�s New England, it�s pizza. Bunyan could get out of jail if he just recanted, but he did not want to recant, and he didn�t want to go against his conscience and the Word.

And here�s what Bunyan said, �If nothing will do unless I make of my conscience a continual butchery and slaughter shop, unless putting out my own eyes, I commit me to the blind to lead me, as I doubt not is desired by some.

I have determined the Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer, if frail life might continue so long and here�s the part people remember, �even till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus violate my faith and principles.

I�d like to get out of jail, I�d like to be able to provide for my wife and children and my blind daughter, but I�m not going to do it and I�d rather have moss grow on my eyeballs. That is pretty amazing.

And what�s so good about the Pilgrim�s Progress is you can find yourself anywhere, you know, along the way from you�re an unbeliever and then God saves you and then you go through trials and temptations, that�s probably why it�s so well-received is because a mature person, a mature person, they pick it up and they recognize people like Faithful and Hopeful and Mr. Worldly Wiseman and Obstinate and Atheist and great names, aren�t they?

Money Love, Mistrust, Sloth, Lord Hate Good, Talkative, what�s wrong with that? Spurgeon said, �Next to the Bible, the book I value most is John Bunyan�s. And by the way, you people there that live in Minnesota, this is not Paul Bunyan nor his ox babe, this is John Bunyan.

�I value most is John Bunyan�s Pilgrim�s Progress. I believe I have read it through at least� How many times do you think Spurgeon read through Pilgrim�s Progress? One hundred times. �It is a volume of which I never seem to tire, and the secret of its freshness is that it is so largely compiled from Scriptures.

Those are two great reasons to read it. You can find yourself anywhere in the book. Where�s Waldo? And it�s so chock full of Scripture. And of course, part two is Christiana. She then goes on the journey.

The first part is Christian and then it�s Christiana. She meets people like Great Heart, Feeble Mind, Reliever, Mrs. Bat�s Eyes, Mr. Brisk, Giant Maul�that�s not Dark Maul�Giant Slay Good, Mr. Skill, Honest, Self-Will, Valiant for Truth, Heedless, and Tell Truth.

And so we are all pilgrims on this progress. And so what�s going on in the book of Hebrews is he, the writer, has been exhorting the people to rest in Christ, the High Priest, and to trust in him, right?

That Christ has done the work. And he has had a warning passage in chapter 2, right, verses 1 and following. And here he has another blunt kind of poke in the eye. It�s a wake-up call, and it is you should be progressing.

If you want to go back to the ABCs, shame on you. Really, some commentators say this is the writer of Hebrews shaming the people who aren�t making progress. Actually, they�re regressing. So what does the text say in verse 11?

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, because we don�t know how to articulate things, no, since you have become dull of hearing. The problem was not with the subject matter, Christ Jesus, not with the preacher, but with the hearer, the listener, and they are declining, they are receding.

They knew the truth, and they�re going backwards. Instead of growing in the spiritual growing being, remember your mom would measure you when you were a kid, and if you�re 16 you should be growing, you should be getting taller, and every mom knows if you�ve got a little baby and that baby doesn�t grow and gain weight, you immediately take that baby to the doctor.

This writer is very pastoral. He wants them to grow, right, he�s shaming them for a good reason. He wants them to mature. He even says in chapter 6, verse 1, �Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.

That�s what�s going on. He wants them to mature. He wants them to fully understand what Jesus is as the high priest. And the good news for all of us, no matter where we are in our walk, we can be more mature.

We need to act our age, and of course, you know, you have to give all these caveats today in our world, but if you�re immature because of time, well, that�s not a big deal, right? Because what does the text say?

About this we have much to say, it�s hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing for verse 12, �Through by this time you ought to be teachers. There�s a time frame involved, but they�ve been Christians long enough, you look at chapter 10, or they�ve been professing believers long enough, that they should know more.

And they�re thinking, you know what, enough of this Christology. I�ve had enough of Christology. By the way, this sounds exactly like the local church today. I need five easy steps, I need four spiritual laws, I need three ways, I need two of this, I need one of that.

I don�t need to hear about Jesus, this high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. You know, I have a real life to live. But when you understand Jesus as the high priest, he is, in fact, going to help you in all these other areas.

By the way, just on a side note, you ought to all read this book. I think it�s hard to get, it�s out of print. Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, edited by R. Scott Clark. It�s one of my favorite books that I�ve probably read in the last ten years.

There�s a book that�s even better though, I completely agree with it. Steve Flippen just said, �Hen 5 .11 -12 is so relevant to today�s church. But I didn�t know if that was �hen� or �heb� or �heno�, is that �heno� chapter 5 verse 11?

I think he meant Hebrews. So anyway, what the writer is doing, because he loves them and he loves the Lord, he wants them to fully grasp Christology. I could ask our viewers here on Facebook, or Jimmy just said something that was funny.

Well, the book wasn�t upside down, I think, but the way the camera is, it shows it the wrong side forward. What was I just saying? Thanks a lot, Jimmy, for making me be interrupted. This is going to go over.

This is a big show, a really big show. As a matter of fact, it�s hot in here. I think the car thermometer, when I got in the car tonight, it said 107. I should probably say 107, but since we�re from Nebraska, 100, 107.

The one thing that�s good, though, when it�s this sunny out, and it doesn�t really matter, the solar pope, he�s always working. This pontifice solar, pape solar, when it�s hot out, he�s working, he�s blessing people.

I appreciate that, because if sanctification was simply just a wave of the hand, that would be really nice. So, there�s our little trinkets. He wants them, pastorally, to grow. It�s not a matter of he�s giving them a backhand.

He�s essentially saying to these Hebrews, �Remember Israel Now, think about the context here. Remember Israel, how you wanted to go back? Remember when they were in the wilderness? Oh, if we could only go back to Egypt.

They had garlic in Egypt. They had food in Egypt. They had all kinds of leeks in Egypt, and it was so fun to go back there. A whole generation did not inherit the land because of that kind of attitude.

Don�t make the same mistake. Now, for all of us, are there times when we�re complacent and lazy and we need a good boot? The answer is probably found in Hebrews chapter 5, 11 through 14. I could ask you the question.

I could ask you Facebook video people, �When�s the last book that you read that had the subject matter of Christ, a Christological book Now, you want to read a marriage book, you�d like to read an evangelism book, you know, �Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God� or something like that.

Obviously, there are good books out there that talk about some of these issues. Oops, there we go. But Christology, that is the key. What you think of Jesus is very important, and of course, that translates into evangelism and everything else.

The writer was very concerned that Jesus would be exalted. Chapter 1, of course, he�s greater than prophets, he�s the Son, he�s the high priest, he is greater than Moses, he is a faithful high priest, all with the backdrop of, there are lots of priests who were decent people, but they were far from the perfect high priest.

And everybody needs the right kind of high priest, because one day you will stand before God, there will be a day of judgment, and you won�t have any case to plead, because God knows everything, but you�re going to need perfection to get into heaven.

You will need perfect law-keeping to get into heaven. And since you are unrighteous, we�re all unrighteous, you�re going to need a righteousness earned by another, by someone else keeping the law, and then paying for our moral obligations where we have sinned.

Since Jesus is important, the writer won�t let them go off into things that he will talk about later in chapter 13, marriage, money, but early on it�s all about the person and work of Christ. Listen to what B .B. Warfield said, �We have but one Savior, and that one Savior is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Nothing that we are and nothing that we can do enters in the slightest measure into the ground of our acceptance with God. Jesus did it all. And that�s important because we all, I mean, we get that kind of works attitude because we�re fallen, we�re in Adam, and we even have residual sin, the sin hangover, now even as Christians, and we want to contribute.

And of course we want to do good things after we�re saved, that�s fine, but not for standing with God, that�s called Rome, that�s called Catholicism, that�s called Solar Pope stuff, that�s what that is.

Your ground of your salvation has to be perfection to stand before God. The evidences of your salvation, the fruit of your salvation, well, that�s something completely different. But what Catholicism does, what evangelicals do, what maybe even you do, is you combine the two together, and you combine ground, our foundation, and the evidences, our fruit.

And the writer of Hebrews, you know what, this is true confessions, I want the writer to be Paul. I really don�t think it is, but I want it to be because I can say Paul so much faster than saying, well, you know, the author of Hebrews.

That becomes very difficult. One lady said, Mary wrote it. Who wrote the book of Hebrews? Mary did, she said. Do you think she was Catholic? Absolutely. You have an ongoing acceptance before the Father because of the Son�s work as high priest.

Because remember, what do priests do? Priest, if you had to boil it down to two things, they offer sacrifices, and Jesus, he is the sacrifice, he is the high priest. And then they pray. So Jesus was raised from the dead, and he is interceding for us, Hebrews chapter 7.

So what do priests do? They sacrifice and they pray. So we have an ongoing acceptance before God the Father. Is that relevant? Well, I think so. Just how relevant is it for you to have a right standing before God that cannot be taken away, that cannot be moved?

Obviously, if I could lose my salvation, I already did, and so could you. He, the writer of Hebrews, he, the man who I wish would be Paul, he looks at their lives, he hears what they're saying, he knows they're going through persecution, and he's calling for spiritual transformation.

He's not saying this transformation is the standing before God, but Christians should, who have the ground of Christ Jesus as their legal standing, they should have more fruit. And the fruit should be an appreciation, an application of Jesus, the high priest.

If you go on to chapter 7, verse 1, it says, For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. So this whole chapter 5, verse 11, through chapter 6, is all a little deviation.

He wants to tell them about Melchizedek, but they just won't listen. And of course, to me, it's very convicting, because you think about, okay, Melchizedek and Genesis and this high priest and Abram and everything else, I mean, it's within me, I have to admit it.

Come on, I've heard enough about this Melchizedek thing already. But the writer says, no, that's important. Why? Because Jesus is prophet, priest, and king, and to be a priest, you can't be from Judah, and he is, Jesus is, from the tribe of Judah, right, the line of the tribe of Judah.

So how can he be a priest if his last name is not Cohen, right, if he's not a Levite? And so the writer has to explain to these Jewish people, there is a priest, there's a great priest, and he is after the order of Melchizedek.

So when you look at this section, this is a good one to read when you're dull and listless and sluggish. Chapter 5, verse 11, dull of hearing, and it's put together with the bookend in chapter 6, verse 12, sluggish, so that you may not be sluggish.

So everything in here is kind of a motivator, so as Wiersbe said, pilgrims should progress. He wants attentive hearing, and it's all about the word, right? The word is preached, the word is read, you're studying, what are the consequences of deviation and apostasy?

He'll move into that in chapter 6, and then at the end of chapter 6, he'll try to encourage people. So today on No Compromise Radio, what are we doing? I have no idea, but we're doing this live, what is this, Facebook Live?

Is that what it is? I have no idea what it's called. Somebody can type that and tell me. Mrs. Norman is watching, congratulations on the baby. Justin, he's watching. It says some of these people I can bring on camera, but I don't know if I want to bring on camera.

I think I'll probably ask my PredictaPen, I know it's backwards, but people send me all kinds of things. Here's PredictaPen. Shall I bring them on camera? We just push it here like this Magic 8-Ball, and it says, dude, no way.

Now, let's see what my message Bible says about this passage, because that's always enlightening. And I think I read this last week, but that show hasn't played yet, so it's going to go over well. Okay, ready?

This is why you tuned in. Somebody's already dropped out. They shouldn't have, because this is it, okay? If anybody else wants to tune in, now's the time. This is called High Powered Christian Radio, all right?

This is why our Arbitron ratings are so high. This is Eugene Peterson, the message translation, small t, Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1. Now, let me read it to you in the ESV, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

Okay? Then it goes on to say, okay, we'll just stop there in verse 1. Ready? So, come on. So, come on, let's leave the preschool finger painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art.

Grow up in Christ. There it is, finger painting exercises. Okay. There you have it. So, see, we have all kinds of little... What's worse? The predictive pen or the predictive bad translation? It's crazy.

Oh, and one other little thing that we want to show, you know, Jesus is better than angels. And so, somebody, after I got done preaching, gave me a little angel. And so, this is my... This is, you know, people always ask the question, right?

How many angels can dance on the head of a needle and pin? They also asked me, is there a private, personal guardian angel for each person? We know, you know, angels guard people, but, you know, do I have one?

The answer is found right here. I've got a little... And you know what? Every angel in the Bible, as far as I know, is male, you know, male names, that kind of thing. I'm not saying they have gender. But why does every kind of angel that I've ever seen...

This looks like a girl to me, okay? That's a girl right there. That's a girl angel, touched by a girl angel. So, the answer to the question, does Mike Ebenroth have an angel that's guarding him? The answer is yes.

Maturity, Christology, and the Danger of Regression

So, what we're going to do is we're going to wrap up this 24-minute show, but I'm going to let the Facebook Live thing just keep playing. If anybody wants to go through with those things, they can. Sometimes we play cards here at the radio show.

These are the Find Strength Through Adversity, Joe Osteen cards from his game, and so I'm just going to randomly pick one, okay? And here's the random one. This makes good radio. And here's what it says.

Henry Ford forgot to put reverse gear in the first car he manufactured. Talk about a time you made a serious mistake, but managed to recover from the setback. Well, Joel, it was one time when I took a group of people to Saddleback Church and heard Rick Warren talk, and that set us back quite some time.

But I think we've recovered. Oh, man. So, anyway, if you're watching on Facebook, I'm going to sound like I'm wrapping up the show because I'm wrapping up the radio show, but we're going to continue on with part two, and I'm going to have you ask and answer for yourself three diagnostic questions to see if you're maturing or you're immature.

And those questions come from verse 12, 13, and 14 of Hebrews chapter 5. Are you mature or are you immature? That's what we're going to look at today. Kind of gauges or markers or pointers that everyone can kind of do some self-diagnostic, kind of like, you know, you get hurt and it's the WebMD stuff.

Speaking of which, I had some lump under my arm, and I thought, oh, great, I'm finally cured of prostate cancer and I got a lump under my arm and here we go again. Had the MRI, and then the MRI turned out it was just some blood vessel, and so I'm going to die of something else.

So anyway, Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. We're going to do another show, but wrapping up for the 24 and a half minutes on NoCoRadio.

Program Sign-Off and Ministry Information

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 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.