Bible In A Year - Hebrews

Bethlehem Bible Church

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January 6, 2008

00:01: Our Father in Heaven, how grateful we are to be able to be given another day of life, a precious gift from You, just to be able to move about, to live and have our very being.
00:14: We know that through Jesus Christ, Your Son, all things consist, all things are held together, and that means even us.
00:21: We're held together, we're sustained, we're kept by You. And that's physically and spiritually for many of us in this room.
00:29: We can say that by the grace of God we are what we are. We can say that God has done a good thing in visiting me with His great salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son.
00:42: And we're grateful to be here, we're thankful to have the Word of God, we're thankful knowing the great hope that we have that the
00:49: Holy Spirit of God will teach us and continue to teach us and lead us into all truth. And Lord, that we by Your grace will grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our
01:00: Lord. Help us to learn, help us to look at the Word of God this morning in such a way that we will take a different position in life, we will take a different attitude, we will have our behavior looked at, and that we would so desire so that we could think and that we could live and that we could serve and go about our very lives with the
01:27: Word of Christ ruling in our hearts. And that we would be a people who live a life that is fitting the
01:34: Gospel, fitting the Gospel truth, fitting of the Word of God so that we may walk, and not only love the truth and learn the truth, but walk in it.
01:42: Help us, we pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, I don't know about you, but I know that there was a time when in my
01:52: Christian life, in the walk with the Lord and by the grace of God being a child of God through faith in Christ and all that, and the precious gift of the
02:02: Word of God, I would come to the book of Hebrews and I would say, wow, that is one tough book.
02:09: That is deep. There is a lot in there. I read that and I don't understand it.
02:14: And there are some things that people say and I'm confused. And I'm not saying here this morning that I may change that perspective that you have, but hopefully by the end of the class you will at least be able to see a few certain points, maybe even one portion of Scripture that maybe somebody raked you over the coals with once and it was like a really tough sledding that you didn't understand it and they made it even more confusing to you.
02:40: But through the ministry, as I prayed of the Holy Spirit, we might be able to know more about this book and come to find, as I have over the years, how great a treasure this book is.
02:52: A wonderful, wonderful book with, of course, a very important theme in mind.
02:59: And what is it about the Christian life? Who or what is the focus of the believer's life?
03:06: As one of the verses I used last week in the class from Philippians 1 in verse 21, where Paul said, for to me to live is
03:15: Christ and to die is gain. His whole life and the life of the believer, isn't it totally wrapped up in?
03:25: And it is all about being saved by Jesus Christ, loved by Jesus Christ, knowing
03:31: Christ, walking with the Lord and submitting to the rule of Christ.
03:37: It is the word of Jesus Christ. It is the idea of ministering unto the
03:42: Lord. It is Jesus. And this is a book that focuses upon the supremacy of Jesus Christ.
03:51: There is none, Hannah said in her exalting song, when
03:56: God had opened her womb and given her Samuel, she said, there is none holy as the
04:01: Lord. There is none beside thee. Neither is there any rock like our God. First Samuel 2, 2.
04:07: That was Hannah's Hannah's cry. And this book cries out the same. There is none like Jesus Christ.
04:14: There is none better. We live we live in a world that you might remember. Some of you may have been here, I think, on a
04:20: Sunday evening a few months or weeks ago. I had shared a message out of,
04:27: I think, Hebrews 10 or so. And one of the things that I did when I introduced that was
04:32: I spoke about that. We live in a world where we hear about the new and improved, don't we?
04:41: I mean, it is when it comes to computers and it comes to computer software.
04:46: It is the upgrade. It is the new version. It is the new release. It is the new cell phone.
04:52: I mean, I saw one the other day. I guess you can throw it and it can stick into your car. You know, it's so sharp.
04:58: They call it the blade or something. I don't know. Razor. OK. But I mean, it's the better.
05:05: It's the better product, the better look, the better packaging. And if you remember back that time,
05:11: I said, yeah, right. I have I have a hard time with with some of these better things.
05:17: I can't even I can't even open up my mouthwash sometime in the morning. I'm trying to turn that cap.
05:22: And I said, who are they? Who designed this? And what is this all about? You know, it's better. This is new. This is this is improved.
05:30: You know, the medicine that comes in the little foil pouches. You ever have a hard time getting some of that?
05:35: You know what I do? I take out the knife or the scissors and start cutting, cutting that stuff to get new and improved.
05:41: What about new and improved when it comes to the scriptures, though, when it comes to the truth, when it comes to who
05:50: Jesus Christ is and his work? Can anybody think that they can improve upon the person of Christ, God who came in the flesh?
06:03: God, Emmanuel, as we heard during the Christmas season, God with us.
06:09: His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
06:15: Can he be approved upon? Absolutely not. And when it comes to his work,
06:21: I mean, we we sing songs. You've heard me say this before.
06:27: We sing songs that deal with the finished work of Christ. I mean, on the cross, when
06:33: Jesus died in John chapter 19 and verse 30, he didn't say it was almost done.
06:40: He didn't say I did my part. You do your part. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't say it's it's so close.
06:48: I've almost got you there. Almost made the payment. It's almost almost saved.
06:54: Absolutely not. Jesus said it is finished. It's complete.
06:59: It's done. It's paid in full. And that's what that's what this book is about.
07:05: The not only the person of Christ, but it is about it is about the work of Christ and particularly his high priestly work on the behalf of his people.
07:17: That is supreme. That cannot be undone. I remember when we were kids, we played we played that game
07:25: King of the Hill. The kids still play King of the Hill today. I mean, a snow mound or a dirt mound. And it was like whoever could get up on the top, you were king.
07:33: And if you could stay there, of course, it was unscrupulous, unscrupulous things that you would do or unkind things that you would do to stay stay up on the top.
07:42: But the idea was to be on the top. Think about think about all the kings, all the presidents, all the rulers of of the world.
07:52: And yet there is one far supreme. He is the king of kings and the
07:57: Lord of Lords. It is Jesus Christ. And this book, the book of Hebrews, talks about and speaks to and has this theme of the surpassing greatness of Christ in the new way that he established the new covenant in his blood.
08:13: It is it is a wonderful book. You may get at times, like I said, you might be reading this book and you might say you scratch in your head, say, what is this all about?
08:23: But I encourage you just to keep reading and just keep studying and keep praying as you're reading that the
08:31: Holy Spirit would would bring home to your heart the truth of this book so that it might become a rich treasure to you.
08:38: The author of this book is unknown. Some say it could have been Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Luke, Philip, Clement of Rome.
08:47: Some of the suggestions. But we do know that there is no name. There is no because of the because of the vocabulary, the writing style, the epistles, history or whatever.
08:57: There is nothing that significantly points to to anybody. But ultimately, we know that the author of this book is who?
09:03: Somebody tell me the Holy Spirit of God, because the men who took up a pen to write, they they were moved by the
09:12: Holy Spirit to pen the words exactly as God wanted us to have. And so around 67 to 69
09:19: AD, these words were penned. It was it has in this book as you look in it.
09:25: I just restudied this a little bit yesterday and saw that there were about 16 references to the book of Psalms as you begin reading right in the very first chapter.
09:39: It is a collection of sermons using the Old Testament scripture.
09:45: And the New Testament writers knew that the Old Testament was the word of God. So they picked it up and they and they quoted it.
09:51: It was it was the truth as it as it is from God. And they and they relied upon it and they look to it and they brought it into the the contemporary time as they were penning the truth.
10:02: And particularly here with the issue that was going on to the group of people who were the audience here of the
10:08: Hebrews. That's where it it gets its name from. It's a it's it's bears a traditional title to the
10:16: Hebrews. And this has been held to ever since about the second century that this was a book that had gone out to a group of people, particularly the audience
10:26: Hebrews, folks who had a particular need. And I'll kind of get into that after a little while.
10:32: But you'll see that the use of Old Testament scripture in it, there is an emphasis on the
10:38: Levitical priesthood upon the sacrifices and the Old Testament. There is a pretty significant absence of any reference to Gentiles in this book.
10:48: And this all supports the conclusion that there was a community of Hebrew people who were the original recipients and the audience for which this book was intended.
10:57: But that does not mean that it can't be of value to us. It does not mean that that we can't learn from this, because as God's God's truth is, is for all his children and for all of us to glean from, all of us to learn from, all of us to make sure that we're going to see that there was something that was particularly true in their life and inclination in their in their church.
11:19: And we can say as believers today, is it something that we can do individually? Possibly. Is there something that we as a church could be in danger of doing?
11:27: And I'll kind of hopefully bring that bring that to bear upon this. But again, written primarily to Hebrew Christians, young believers who were in constant danger of falling back into the traditions and rituals of the
11:42: Old Testament law. And again, it was written with an emphasis of worship and living, which would be focused upon the sufficiency and the supremacy of Jesus Christ.
11:56: And hopefully by doing that, by the writer's intent, the author's intent and, of course,
12:01: God, the Holy Spirit's intent was, is to keeping them from placing an importance upon these
12:09: Old Testament ceremonial observances and the sacrifices in this tradition from the past and saying, that is what is important.
12:17: Rather than making Christ important and having him be, as it says in Colossians, letting him have the preeminence, letting him be the one who is the one to be focused upon.
12:28: Now, think about that. If if it was written to them and the book, of course.
12:35: Well, let me just go on just a moment and then I'll try to ask this question again. The book is showing the transcendent glory and supremacy of the
12:42: Lord Jesus Christ. There is a reoccurring theme and there is a reoccurring word that is used.
12:49: And and on the backside, you'll see in the outline that there is a mention of that in the overview, the quick overview about three quarters of the way down, you will see the superiority of Christ's position.
13:02: We see this. There's a better name, better than the angels, better than Moses, better.
13:08: There's a better rest. You can go through this book and you'll see there's a better hope in chapter seven, better priesthood in chapter seven, better covenant, eight, chapter eight, better promises, chapter eight and verse six, better sacrifices, 923, better possessions, 1034.
13:27: You remember that it spoke of of those in Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter in Hebrews 11, 16.
13:34: It speaks of Abraham and his family that they were seeking a better. What number? Begins with a
13:40: C, a better country. I think I heard somebody say that a better country there, they were down below looking for a physical country, a physical land, but they were pressing toward a city whose builder and maker is
13:53: God, a better country and a better resurrection. It speaks of an 11 chapter, 11, verse 35.
13:59: This whole idea of better the people, these Hebrews had something that they were focusing upon.
14:08: And what the writer is saying is there is someone better. There is someone not only who is better in his essence and his person, but there is someone who is better in his work, in his life, in his ministry, in his priesthood.
14:24: And, of course, it's Jesus Christ. He's better. He's better because in the
14:29: Old Testament, when it came to these sacrifices, when it came when it came to taking the animals to the priests and having the hands laid on them as a transfer of the sin of the people upon that animal and the animal was slain.
14:42: And and then that was sacrificed and burnt up before the Lord. The problem was, is that, as it says in chapter 10, that there was a remembrance of sin every year.
14:53: And there's a repetition of that. And there has to be thousands and tens of thousands of animals that will need to be sacrificed.
15:01: And in those sacrifices, those sacrifices can never take away sin.
15:08: But there's something better. Those priests only lived a certain amount of time.
15:14: Their lives were only so long. They and by reason of being frail creatures of dust, they died in their ministry.
15:23: Their priesthood lasted only so long. But in the verse that I believe Pastor Mike used last
15:28: Sunday in Hebrews 725, it says that seeing he is able to save those to the uttermost who come to God through Christ, seeing he ever lives to make intercession.
15:41: He has an eternal priesthood. He's the eternal God, eternal priesthood.
15:47: And therefore, he's before the throne of God forever for us, interceding on our behalf.
15:52: Jesus is better than that of the Old Testament priesthood and their ministry and that they died better than the sacrifices, better than Moses.
16:04: Now, for a Hebrew, for a Jewish person to hear that, it could come as a bit of a goat in the side.
16:14: Why would you think that? I'll put it out before you. Why? Why would that be so? OK, Moses is it.
16:24: I mean, he is he is the he is the focus. You hear you hear Jesus speaking to the religious leaders.
16:31: And what is their defense? Not only that, you know, Abraham is our father, but but we're all about Moses, aren't we?
16:38: Bruce, what was your idea before I? Yes.
16:52: They're they're they're relying upon the Old Testament. They're relying upon the sacrifices, the the ceremony.
16:58: And they're thinking that that is it. That's what it's all about. And and the writer is saying there's something better than that.
17:06: And even when it comes to Moses, if you think about it. Who did
17:11: God give the law to and through Moses? Right. And when it came and when it came to in Jewish thinking and the
17:21: Hebrew mind. The law of God and Moses are synonymous and interchanged in the
17:29: Bible when there's references have not you haven't you read in Moses? You see that in the Scripture, which means haven't you read in the
17:36: Old Testament scriptures? Haven't you heard from God in the the terminology that's used for that is
17:44: Moses is this equation, this this linking up with Moses. So it was like everything that their lives were when it came to their religion, when it came to their acceptance with God, when it came to what they were all about and what they were going to do and how they were going to observe in their life and in mold and shape their behavior had to do with the
18:05: Old Testament, the Old Testament scriptures that had to do with Moses and the writer here is saying.
18:11: And let's take a let's take a look at that just so that we can see that in chapter three.
18:20: Notice in three. Wherefore, beginning in verse one, I'm reading from the King James.
18:25: Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession,
18:34: Christ Jesus. He's speaking to believers, isn't he? And he says, who was faithful to him that appointed him as also
18:42: Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who hath builded the house, hath more honor than the house itself.
18:57: It's basically what he's saying here is that Christ. More glory than Moses, Christ, better than Moses.
19:06: And this would require a complete shift in their thinking. It could involve just pulling the pillars out among underneath from some folks.
19:17: And it could certainly deal with pride, because that was an issue with those who so closely held to to Moses and the
19:26: Old Testament law. And, you know, this is it. And this is what we know that we're right. We know that we're on the right team here.
19:33: We know that we've got all our T's crossed and our eyes dotted. And you're going to come along and tell us that there's something and someone better.
19:41: And that's exactly the case, because there is an intent of the law.
19:47: There is a purpose for the law of God. And it tells us in Galatians that the law is a schoolmaster or a tutor can only teach us.
19:57: It can only bring us so far. And it is a tutor. It's a schoolmaster to bring us someplace.
20:04: And that someplace is where does it say to Christ? The law is a schoolmaster.
20:09: I think it's in Galatians three around 20. I can't remember where the verse is. I believe it's in Chapter three.
20:16: But the law of God, the purpose of the law of God was to show us, as it said in Romans, Chapter three, it's to stop our mouths.
20:24: Three, 19 or 20 around. It is to close our mouths. It is to show us that we're guilty before God. We read the law of God and we cannot keep it.
20:32: There is absolutely no way as we read through the law that is given by God. There is absolutely no way that any man, woman or child can keep that law.
20:42: So it is it is the the purpose of it is so that we might become guilty before God, that we might see our need of something else, of someone else.
20:51: You've heard me. I apologize. I've used this illustration before. But when you get up this morning, probably ninety nine percent of us went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror.
21:02: And for what reason? Why did you look in the mirror? So we want to tell me to assess the damage.
21:10: I heard somebody say. Right. I mean, you want to see what you look like so that you can do something about it, because, you know, have you ever.
21:17: My dad and I, my wife and I, sometimes we're going out driving around or in a mall or something and we'll look at somebody and we'll say, did that person look in the mirror, you know, or do they even have a mirror?
21:29: A funny story. I just got to tell you, this has nothing to do with the Sunday school class. We're at the concert at the Masters College for Christmas and we're in the cafeteria about an hour before the concert.
21:39: And this student, a young girl walks in and she's got her pajamas on.
21:45: She's got pajamas, pants on. And I think she might have had a regular boss on the top. And I thought to myself,
21:52: I didn't say anything to anybody, but I said, man, the clothing fats have really changed since, you know,
21:59: I mean, I guess nothing should shock me anymore. Well, come to find out, we went to the concert afterwards and there were there were these little presentations that they put on in the for the presentation.
22:12: And some of the kids were what? Wearing pajamas. I mean, so I felt I felt like it wasn't a total loss. And the kids haven't gone off completely off off the deep end.
22:20: But, you know, you got to get back to my illustration. We you looked in the mirror this morning to assess the damage, to see where you were.
22:31: But you did not take the mirror off the wall and start washing your face and combing your hair with the mirror.
22:37: The mirror has its job to do. And it points to the comb.
22:43: It points to the brush. It points to the soap or the toothpaste or the tweezers or whatever. It tells you you need something else.
22:51: The law of God. Same way. The law of God is the schoolmaster. It is. It can only show us certain things.
22:59: It shows us that we that we cannot keep it, that we are not as holy as God is. We cannot do what
23:04: God has said. And we need a savior. We need someone else. We need something outside of ourselves like the mirror.
23:11: We need something outside the mirror. And when it comes to the law of God, we need something outside of the law of God to save us, to help us, to get forgiveness, to get peace with God.
23:22: And that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is Christ himself. And this book here is saying just that to them, that Christ is better than the sacrifices.
23:33: Christ is better than that Old Testament ceremony and practice, which you might be relying upon.
23:40: And that's exactly what they're doing. So this. In this book,
23:45: I said there's the better. God has provided a perfect high priest and a better sacrifice in Christ, which frees these
23:54: Hebrews and frees every believer from trying to be accepted by God through keeping the law with all of its trappings.
24:03: Now, I just want to step back a moment before we go into maybe a couple of texts in Hebrews. And I want to ask this question to make it a little bit rebel relevant for us today here as New Testament believers.
24:16: If we think of this, that the that Christ is better than the Old Testament sacrifices.
24:22: And these people are trying to be accepted by God in a way that in a means whereby it is not acceptable to God.
24:29: By these Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies in the washings and in the in the slaying of animals, in the burning of the incense and so on, that wasn't.
24:41: That isn't the way the new covenant, the New Testament in Christ's blood, that isn't
24:46: Christ. That is a foreshadow, a type of Christ, and he fulfilled it all.
24:52: How can we do the same thing today? How is it that we can get in a trap? What is it that we can do to think that we're doing something and God is going to be pleased with that?
25:00: We're going to be accepted even though we're believers justified by faith, even though we know that we're completely forgiven.
25:08: We have eternal life. We're on our way to heaven. What is it that we sometimes do, which is the same mentality mindset of these people?
25:15: What do you think? What was that? Well, we go to church and we pray and we give.
25:25: And somehow what what what are we thinking here? I don't want I mean, if somebody else wants to say it, what do you think, Bruce?
25:30: Which is far better, far better.
25:45: Right. Don't we sometimes get in that works mentality even though we're saved by faith?
25:50: Sometimes we think that God will love me more if I do this, this, this and this. Or how about this?
25:56: We sin greatly and we confess our sins. And God is faithful and he's just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
26:06: And we turn right around and do what? We do the same thing. We might sin, but we turn right around and we think
26:12: I've got to do this. I got to just shore up my prayer life and I got to get going and I got to evangelize.
26:17: And somehow we think that it's going to take the edge off it. And maybe God is going to be accepted with us where we are accepted in the beloved
26:26: Jesus Christ. Far better. He is supreme. I see a hand in the back.
27:02: Sure. And and it's like there's got to be something better, something outside of what the word of God says, something more than Christ.
27:11: And isn't that dangerous thinking? That's what it's that's what it's all about. And that's why why the book is written.
27:18: It demonstrates this book, demonstrates that Christ is the perfect, complete, satisfactory.
27:24: Even though as we when I looked at when I preached a few weeks back, he's the one time sacrifice.
27:31: As compared to the inadequate inadequacy of the Levitical system, with its tens of thousands of sacrifices that were repeated over and over and over again.
27:42: Jesus is majestically superior. He is wonderfully supreme. The only one in the position of superiority when it comes to to who he is and his work of salvation.
27:55: He's better than anything. He's better than any religious system. He's better than any effort. He's better than any person.
28:02: He's better than Moses. He's better than anybody. And there was no one better when it comes to saving sinners.
28:09: As it is said of Christ in Luke 1910, it is said of him for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
28:18: And Jesus completely saves. Remember the hymn, Love Lifted Me, Souls in Danger, Look Above. Jesus completely saves, not halfheartedly, but completely.
28:27: He saves Hebrews 7, 24 to the uttermost or completely saves us.
28:32: And no one else can do that. Notice in Hebrews chapter one, as this book begins,
28:38: Jesus is even when it comes to the revelation that we have here, we even have a better revelation.
28:44: It says here, God, who in sundry times and in divers manners, many ways spake in times past under the fathers by the prophets.
28:51: But he has in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world.
29:01: The world's Jesus, the living God, spoke. And we have and we have it through the ministry of the spirit of Christ, the very word of God.
29:11: And it says in verse three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, speaking of Christ in relation to God, the father, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels as he had by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
29:38: And what the danger they had of. And during this time, another one was, is that they would demote
29:43: Christ and they would look to angels. And they would look to other spirit beings as being far better.
29:52: And right here, he even says this, that Jesus better than the angels, better than Moses, better than anyone.
29:58: Now, OK, I got that far in my thinking as far as what I'll do in Sunday school.
30:04: So so far, it's been planned. And right now, I shoot into the go move into the shoot from the hip mode.
30:12: What's what's next? And I have a I have a few minutes to to take care of a couple of things. What I'd like to do.
30:17: And hopefully I will. I will. I will deal. I've dealt with the one point that I want to deal with the supremacy of the supremacy of Christ in this book.
30:25: The second one, I think I would like to do is I would like to go into that. Whereas in the past,
30:32: I would read this text and I would say, wow, for me, these are uncharted waters.
30:38: This is this is difficult. And I remember hearing people talking about this text. And if you would turn with me to Hebrews chapter six, some folks have misinterpreted and misapplied this text.
30:50: And it has caused a lot of heartache for people. And hopefully I'll be able to look at this just briefly with you.
30:56: And if there are any questions you can come to me after, if I didn't make it perfectly clear, I hope to at least be able to to look at this, because this is a place where people go like in Galatians, chapter four, where they try to prove something that is incorrect when it comes to the salvation that God brings to his people.
31:14: And we'll get there in verse in chapter five. At the end of chapter five, he speaks to them and says, you know what?
31:21: He kind of spanks them a little bit because they're immature believers here all along. They had been they had received a revelation from God, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
31:31: They the this good news had come to them. They're saved. They're they're believers. God has begun a work in them.
31:37: And yet they haven't graduated from kindergarten. They haven't moved on. They haven't grown.
31:43: They haven't matured as they should. And he kind of scolds them. He he spanks them a bit. And he says in verse chapter five, verse 12, for when for a time you ought to have been teachers, you need that someone teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God.
31:59: And you are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
32:09: And he says, look, you haven't grown up your babies. You should not be here. You should be further along.
32:16: You have the responsibility, as it says in Psalm and Colossians three. I think it is verse 16 that we should teach and admonish one another teaching and admonishing one another.
32:27: And Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It's a responsibility of every believer to be a teacher, not having the gift of teaching, but to teach the things, to share the things that we've seen and heard with other people.
32:40: And through evangelism, of course, we're promoting the gospel. We're desiring that people would be saved. And when it comes to when people are saved and other
32:47: Christians, we should share the things that God has shown us. And with that, with the desire that they might be able to move on and be able to grow and and they'd be able to go on in the faith.
32:58: But they've been stuck. They're on a plateau. They haven't gone anywhere. And he's using he's going to use as he goes into Chapter six, a comparison.
33:08: And I just I went back to Chapter five so we can see how it flows from five through six, hopefully.
33:14: So this will make a little bit more sense for us. He says in verse 14, strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
33:26: And here he is just saying by studying the word of God and attending where the word of God is taught, the child of God matures and can discern what doctrine is profitable and what doctrine isn't profitable for for their souls and for their lives.
33:43: He says in verse six, then, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands and resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
34:03: And this we will do if God permit permit. And now we get to the rub. Now we get to the place he says, look, we're going to we're going to we're going to go on and we're going to we're going to deal with.
34:14: I'm going to deal with a particular group of people here. Here's one and here's another.
34:20: We're going to see that there is a contrast. There's two different groups of people being spoken of. And verse four, follow along with me, where it says, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift.
34:35: And we're made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.
34:43: If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.
34:52: Now, I don't know how many of you here have ever had to speak to somebody, but they'll take this these few verses here and they will say, see.
35:02: And what what are they telling you? You can lose your salvation. Now, when
35:08: I when I hear somebody say that and they're going to a text which is difficult and maybe it's, you know, it takes a little bit of a study.
35:16: What is the first thing that we should do when we when we hit something like that? What is the first thing we should do, Steve? It's context.
35:24: Of course, what is it? What is it speaking of here in the context? And we're going to try to get to that so we can understand what this is, what this is saying.
35:31: And also, what else can we do when it comes to a difficult passage,
35:37: Charlie? Right. Take on the whole body of Scripture.
35:44: Now, when a person goes to the verse like that, they they presuppose that a person can lose their salvation based upon the doctrinal stance that they take.
35:54: So they must need fine scripture that will teach that or or at least bolster that position.
36:01: And of course, there was somebody sometime back whenever who read this text and and twisted it and said, this is what it says.
36:10: If a person can fall away, verse six. And if a person falls away,
36:16: I mean, they were they were in. Look, they were enlightened. They they tasted the heavenly gift.
36:22: They were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and they've tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.
36:28: Well, what I do is I I say, OK, Lord, please teach me what this means. I want to study this in its context.
36:34: But what I'm going to do is I'm going to approach this with all the other scripture that the
36:41: Holy Spirit has taught me, has taught you about salvation. And we think when it comes to salvation,
36:49: God gives us eternal life. John, chapter 10, I given to them eternal life and they shall never perish.
36:57: Verse twenty seven. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave the me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
37:07: The scripture there where we are eternally secure. Nobody can pluck the child of God out of the out of the hand of God.
37:14: When it comes to eternal life, it's not. Jesus said, truly, truly, I say unto you, he that believes on me has temporary life or probationary salvation until you fail.
37:27: You know, you're you're you're if you fail, you're going to be out or I.
37:35: We could read Romans chapter eight and it would be it would be temporary adoption. We're adopted in the family of God.
37:41: But if we mess up, we're out. It's none of that in Romans chapter eight. It speaks to us that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, you know, any nor any creature can what can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our
38:01: Lord. We are eternally secure when it comes to salvation. It is in the hand of God and God will not take it away.
38:08: And when we approach the scripture here, this must mean something else.
38:14: This cannot mean that a believer this is speaking to people who who are believers, who who somehow fall away because that's impossible when it comes to salvation.
38:25: So this means and what these people who are enlightened means they came to an understanding, but not necessarily embrace the truth for their own.
38:34: They didn't believe it. They didn't trust it completely. People who people who have tasted taste to taste means to experience something.
38:44: If you look in, you can just take a note. If you take a note in Hebrews, this book to nine, it said that Jesus tasted death for every man to experience death.
38:55: And it can be experienced something that is can be experienced temporarily or continually.
39:01: It's used that way in the scriptures. So these people tasted. The heavenly gift partakers of the
39:09: Holy Spirit, maybe these could have been people who who had seen the great work of the spirit of God in their midst.
39:16: But like those that Stephen had to deal with in Acts seven, they heard that these people heard the preaching, the powerful preaching of Stephen, the
39:26: Holy Spirit taking this man up and using him as a great instrument to preach the gospel. And yet they were stiff necked and they resisted the
39:35: Holy Spirit. There are people who it says here they've tasted the good word of God and can't people come to church, hear the hear the word of God and embrace it.
39:46: And maybe even for a while, like when John the Baptist was preaching, Herod was shaken by that, by that preaching.
39:55: And I think it was when Paul was testifying, King Agrippa, I think it was the same thing, just shaken by that.
40:04: And there was this this this the word of God came home. Pilate, you remember
40:09: Pilate, when Jesus speaking to Jesus and he at the end of that, he just says, what is truth right before him?
40:17: And they refuse. These are people who have made a profession. Of Christianity, a profession of faith, but it has not been genuine.
40:27: It has not changed their lives. It is not it is it is not a true and full work of salvation.
40:34: And these people, it says it says that these are the ones that crucified themselves.
40:40: The son of God, afresh in verse six, they they are in a position where they've apostatized.
40:46: It looked as if they were in, but they apostatized. They've they've fallen away from the only hope that they have.
40:51: They've sinned against Christ and there's no other mode of forgiveness. There's no other way for them to be accepted but by Christ.
40:58: And they've gone away from that. In Galatians four, it says they've fallen from grace or fallen from from the means and the mode of salvation, which is through grace and grace alone.
41:07: And they've gone off to some other system. And here here it is, is that they're looking to something else, not as not looking to Christ, who is far better than all.
41:17: And they have recruits, they have crucified or they've concluded that Jesus should have been crucified and they stand with his enemies and they put him to an open shame.
41:29: How do I know this in context? Keep reading. Look in verse seven for the it's definitely dealing with two types of people lost and saved people.
41:37: Verse seven for the earth, which drinks in the rain that comes often upon it and brings forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God.
41:48: So here's an illustration here. We say it's those that and that's basically those that hear the gospel message and respond to it are blessed.
41:57: But look in verse eight, but that which bears thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned.
42:05: So out of neglect of the gospel message, these people who reject it, there's judgment to come.
42:13: Notice what he says in verse nine. But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we speak thus, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work of labor and of love, which you have showed towards his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
42:31: Certainly is talking about two groups of people, lost people and saved. These are people who had made a profession. They had fallen away and it's impossible for them to be renewed, forgiven to come back to repentance outside of Christ, who is far better.
42:47: And if you take their thinking to its logical to their if you take it to their logical conclusion, what they are saying, these people who believe that you can lose your salvation, you can have it, you can lose it.
42:57: Then you can have it some more and you can lose it for a period of time, have it and lose it. If they truly take this text in context, the way that they're looking at it, what they're saying, what this text is saying in verse six is, is that they lose it.
43:12: They can never get it back again because it says if they fall away, it's impossible. Verse four, if they fall away, that's the impossible.
43:19: And verse four is connected with if they fall away in verse six to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify themselves and so on.
43:27: That is that is a hopefully and I know that I didn't deal with it fully, but hopefully you'll be able to go with the scripture, read it in its context and say,
43:37: I understand. I can see it now. It does make sense. This isn't believers. We know that based upon other scriptures and if we reference those that that we cannot lose our salvation.
43:47: I must hurry quickly and in five minutes share the last point that I have. If you would look with me, please, in Romans chapter nine,
43:57: I have to just share with you and I know I have done this with with with others, but not only we speak of the majestic supremacy of Christ.
44:07: It is great work on our behalf, and we're going to kind of see this here. And how we can be warned to be not falling into the same trap to think that there is something better than the complete finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
44:20: And we try to rest to rely upon something, our obedience, our our goodness, our our way that we kind of just try to make things a little better after we've sinned.
44:29: And somehow, you know, God is going to love us more. God can't love you more than he loves you already. It's a it's an everlasting love and it's love that has been shed that has been bestowed upon you.
44:42: God has elected you and chosen you, brought you to himself. And it's not anything that we can do that can make
44:47: God love us more or to be more pleased with us or more accepted. We can't be more accepted other than the better price supremacy.
44:56: And then, too, you can't lose our salvation because the work of God is is certainly complete, complete. And three, one of the things that helped me when
45:04: I was growing up in Westboro, our family attended a Roman Catholic church and I, for years, did not understand religion for years, did not understand what was going on when it came to the
45:15: Bible. I listened to what I was taught in it. And at that time, some of it seemed to make sense.
45:21: And it's sometimes I used to have huge question marks. What does that mean? What is what is that all about?
45:27: Why are they doing what they're doing up front? And, of course, the word of God was kept from us because we could not really understand it.
45:34: So we just believe what we were told. And it wasn't until God had saved me and gave me the word of God and begin teaching me the word of God that I came to the treasure of Hebrews 9 and 10 when it spoke of the work of Christ, his high priestly work.
45:52: And the question I want to get to and where I want to end up in is when it comes to the sacrifice of Christ, I talked about it when he said in John 19, 30, it is finished, it's complete.
46:07: Does the scripture anywhere tell us that it is once that he was sacrificed, that he died one time and one time only?
46:16: And that's it. It is sufficient. It's over. And, of course, if you would look with me here.
46:22: And verse 24, 924, for Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.
46:37: Verse 25, nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entered in the holy place every year with the blood of others.
46:46: When did the high priest go in, Bruce? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm in Hebrews.
46:52: I'm in Hebrews. Sorry, got you confused. I apologize.
47:00: Hebrews 9, 24 is where I first started. And now I'm in 925. Well, on the on the
47:10: Day of Atonement, right? The high priest went in to the Holy of Holies one time a year and it was repeated every year.
47:17: But now look with me in Hebrews 9, 25. Nor yet speaking of Christ that he should offer himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others.
47:30: For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. This whole idea of Christ being re -sacrificed or re -crucified over and over again is is an error in thinking.
47:42: It is an it is a it is a false doctrine. It is outside of Scripture because it says here for in verse 26, for then must he have often have suffered.
47:53: But now, once in the end of the world, has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself?
48:00: And it doesn't end there. Verse 27. And as is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment that we use that verse.
48:07: And it's OK to do so. We use that verse to show sin is inevitable. I mean, death is inevitable. It's going to come to everybody.
48:14: Reincarnation is not true because we only die once and we go, you know, and then we go into the presence of God for judgment. It's a verse that we use to say once we do die, we do go into God's presence for judgment.
48:24: But the reason this verse is here is to teach us something, because notice it says as it appointed unto men once to die in verse 27, but after this, the judgment.
48:34: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many context, context. It's telling us here that as the principle is that we die one time physically.
48:45: So Christ died once for sin forever. In the very first opening of the book, you remember, it says that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God, the majesty on high in Hebrews chapter 10.
48:59: It says in verse 10, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
49:06: He says every priest stands daily ministering and offering, oftentimes the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.
49:13: But this man, speaking of Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down forever for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting to his enemies be made his footstool.
49:26: We end in verse 14 for by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified.
49:32: If you know anybody who is involved in a church where they repeatedly sacrifice, recrucify
49:41: Christ over and over again, lovingly take them to these verses and show them that Christ died one time.
49:48: For me personally, this was so freeing. This was so helpful. It rubbed out and erased the big question marks that I had when it came to religion, when it came to the work of Christ.
49:59: It's once, forever, complete, sufficient, better than the sacrifices which could never take away sin, which had to be repeated, which left the guilty conscience.
50:14: And here it says in Romans 9 and in 10 says that we have that guilty conscience dealt with and before God we're acceptable in his sight and all is well with our soul.
50:25: I hope that as you as you read this book and if you look through it, I mean, there is an idea in the book that how can we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
50:34: Be careful not to chapter three and four where it talks about that they didn't enter into the rest because of the unbelief, not going all the way, coming partly to Christ and then seeing it, but then going and taking these ceremonies or any religious work or any effort and saying,
50:50: I'm going to rely upon that. Throw that away and hold and cling to Jesus Christ because he's better than Moses.
50:57: He's better than the priest, the Old Testament priest. He's better than any system. He's better than any teacher, any person.
51:05: He is God's Messiah, the Son of God who came to save us from our sins.
51:10: And this book all points to him. If you want a book that points to Christ, here it is. He is supreme. He is overall.
51:17: He is preeminent. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your word.
51:27: We thank you for a book like this. No way that we could touch it all this morning. But thank you that we could just get a little bit of a highlight of it, an overview.
51:36: More than anything that we can see the transcendent glory and the majestic supremacy, and wonder and awe of Christ our
51:45: Savior. Help us as we continue into morning service to worship as we should, to come as the hymn writer said, all you who hear, now to his temple draw near.
51:56: Join me in glad adoration. We want to have our hearts lifted up in praise as we sing, as we listen, as we speak of the things of God afterwards.