Bible In A Year - Hebrews

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. We know that through Jesus Christ, your Son, all things consist, all things are held together, and that means even us.

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. 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.

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 Holy Spirit of God will teach us and continue to teach us and lead us into all truth.

Lord, that we by your grace will grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our 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 Word of Christ ruling in our hearts and that we would be a people who live a life that is fitting the 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.

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 Christian life and 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 Word of God, I would come to the book of Hebrews and I would say, wow, that is one tough book.

That is deep. There is a lot in there. I read that and I don't understand it. 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 real really tough sledding that you didn't understand it and they made it even more confusing to you 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.

A wonderful, wonderful book with of course a very important theme in mind and what is it about the Christian life? Who or what is the focus of the believer's life 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 Christ and to die is gain.

His whole life and the life of the believer, isn't it totally wrapped up in and it is all about being saved by Jesus Christ, loved by Jesus Christ, knowing Christ, walking with the Lord and submitting to the rule of Christ.

It is the word of Jesus Christ. It is the idea of ministering unto the Lord. It is Jesus and this is a book that focuses upon the supremacy of Jesus Christ. There is none, Hannah said in her exalting song, when God had opened her womb and given her Samuel, she said, there is none holy as the Lord.

There is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. First Samuel 2 .2, that was Hannah's cry and this book cries out the same. There is none like Jesus Christ. There is none better. We live in a world and you might remember, some of you may have been here, I think on a Sunday evening, a few months or weeks ago, I had shared a message out of, I think, Hebrews 10 or so and one of the things that I did when I introduced that was I spoke about that we live in a world where we hear about the new and improved, don't we?

I mean, when it comes to computers and it comes to computer software, it is the upgrade, it is the new version, it is the new release, it is the new cell phone. 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, I think they call it the blade or something, I don't, the razor, okay.

But, I mean, it's the better, it's the better product, the better look, the better packaging and if you remember back that time, I said, yeah, right, I have a hard time with some of these better things.

I can't even open up my mouthwash sometime in the morning, I'm trying to turn that cap and I said, who designed this and what is this all about? You know, it's better, this is new, this is improved, you know, the medicine that comes in the little foil pouches, you ever have a hard time getting some of that?

You know what I do, I take out the knife or the scissors and start cutting that stuff to get new and improved. What about new and improved when it comes to the scriptures though, when it comes to the truth, when it comes to who Jesus Christ is and His work?

Can anybody think that they can improve upon the person of Christ? God who came in the flesh, God Emmanuel as we heard during the Christmas season, God with us, His name shall be called Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.

Can He be approved upon? Absolutely not. And when it comes to His work, I mean, we sing songs, you've heard me say this before, we sing songs that deal with the finished work of Christ. I mean, on the cross when Jesus died in John chapter 19 and verse 30, He didn't say it was almost done.

He didn't say, I did my part, you do your part. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't say, it's so close, I've almost got you there, almost made the payment, almost saved. Absolutely not. Jesus said, it is finished, it's complete, it's done, it's paid in full.

And that's what this book is about. Not only the person of Christ, but it is about the work of Christ and particularly His high priestly work on the behalf of His people that is supreme, that cannot be outdone.

I remember when we were kids, we played that game King of the Hill. Do 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.

And if you could stay there, of course, it was unscrupulous things that you would do or unkind things that you would do to stay up on the top. But the idea was to be on the top. Think about all the kings, all the presidents, all the rulers of the world.

And yet there is one far supreme. He is the King of kings and the 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 and the new way that He established the new covenant in His blood.

It is a wonderful book. You may get at times, like I said, you might be reading this book and you might say, scratch in your head, say, what is this all about? But I encourage you just to keep reading and just keep studying and keep praying as you're reading that the Holy Spirit would bring home to your heart the truth of this book so that it might become a rich treasure to you.

The author of this book is unknown. Some say it could have been Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Luke, Philip, Clement of Rome, 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.

There is nothing that significantly points to to anybody. But ultimately, we know that the author of this book is who somebody tell me the Holy Spirit of God, because the men who took up a pen to write, they they were moved by the Holy Spirit to pen the words exactly as God wanted us to have.

And so around 67 to 69 AD, these words were penned. It was it has in this book, as you look in it, 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, it is a collection of sermons using the Old Testament scripture 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.

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 truths and particularly here with the issue that was going on to the group of people who were the audience here of the Hebrews.

That's where it it gets its name from. It's a it's it's bears a traditional title to the 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 Hebrews, folks who had a particular need.

And I'll kind of get into that after a little while. But you'll see that the use of Old Testament scripture in it, there is an emphasis on the Levitical priesthood upon the sacrifices and the Old Testament.

There is a pretty significant absence of any reference to Gentiles in this book. 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.

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.

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? 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 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.

And hopefully by doing that, by the writer's intent, the author's intent and, of course, God, the Holy Spirit's intent was is to keeping them from placing an importance upon these Old Testament ceremonial observances and the sacrifices and this tradition from the past and saying that is what is important.

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. Now, think about that. If if it was written to them and the book, of course.

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 Lord Jesus Christ. There is a reoccurring theme and there is a reoccurring word that is used.

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.

We see this. There's a better name, better than the angels, better than Moses, better. 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, nine, twenty three, better possessions.

Ten thirty four. You remember that it spoke of of those in Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter in Hebrews 11, 16. It speaks of Abraham and his family that they were seeking a better what? Remember. Begins with a 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 God, a better country and a better resurrection.

It speaks of an eleven chapter, eleven verse thirty five. This whole idea of better the people, these Hebrews had something that they were focusing upon. 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. And of course, it's Jesus Christ.

He's better. He's better because in the 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 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 is a remembrance of sin every year 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.

And in those sacrifices, those sacrifices can never take away sin. But there's something better, those priests only lived a certain amount of time, their lives were only so long, they and by reason of being frail creatures of dust, they died in their ministry, their priesthood lasted only so long.

But in a verse that I believe Pastor Mike used last 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.

He has an eternal priesthood. He's the eternal God, eternal priesthood. And therefore, he's before the throne of God forever for us interceding on our behalf. Jesus is better than that of the the Old Testament priesthood and their ministry and that they died better than the sacrifices, better than Moses.

Now, for a Hebrew, for a Jewish person to hear that, it could come as a bit of a goad in the side. Why would you think that? I'll put it out before you. Why? Why would that be so? OK, Moses is it. I mean, he is he is the he is the focus.

You hear you hear Jesus speaking to the religious leaders. And what is their defense? Not only that, you know, Abraham is our father, but but we're all about Moses, aren't we? Bruce, what was your idea before I?

Yes, they're they're they're relying upon the Old Testament. They're relying upon the sacrifices, the the ceremony. 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.

And even when it comes to Moses, if you think about it. Who did God give the law to and through Moses, right? And when it came and when it came to in Jewish thinking and the Hebrew mind. The law of God and Moses are synonymous and interchanged in the 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 Old Testament scriptures? Haven't you heard from God in the the terminology that's used for that is 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 and mold and shape their behavior had to do with the Old Testament, the Old Testament scriptures.

It had to do with Moses. And the writer here is saying and let's take a let's take a look at that just so that we can see that in chapter three. Notice in three, wherefore, beginning in verse one, I'm reading from the King James, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.

He's speaking to believers, isn't he? And he says, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also 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.

And it's basically what he's saying here is that Christ. More glory than Moses, Christ, better than Moses, and this would require a complete shift in their thinking, it could involve just pulling the pillars out among underneath from some folks, and it could certainly deal with pride because that was an issue with those who so closely held to to Moses and the 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. 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.

And that's exactly the case, because there is an intent of the law, 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 and can only bring us so far.

And it is a tutor. It's a schoolmaster to bring us someplace. And that someplace is where does it say to Christ? The law is a schoolmaster. I think it's in Galatians three around 20. I can't remember where the verse is.

I believe it's in chapter three. 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 319 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. There is absolutely no way as we read through the law that is given by God. It there is absolutely no way that any man, woman or child can keep that law.

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. You've heard me. I apologize. I've used this illustration before.

But when you got up this morning, probably ninety nine percent of us went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. And for what reason? Why did you look in the mirror? So we want to tell me to assess the damage 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 my job 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?

A funny story. I just could 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.

And this student, a young girl walks in and she's got her pajamas on. She's got pajamas, pants on. And I think she might have had a regular boss on the top. And I thought to myself, I didn't say anything to anybody, but I said, man, the clothing fads have really changed since, you know, 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. 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. But, you know, you know, to get back to my illustration, we you looked in the mirror this morning to assess the damage, to see where you were.

But you did not take the mirror off the wall and start washing your face and combing your hair with the mirror, the mirror has its job to do. And it points to the comb, 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.

The law of God, same way, the law of God is the schoolmaster. It is it can only show us certain things. It shows us that we that we cannot keep it, that we are not as holy as God is. We cannot do what God has said and we need a savior.

We need someone else. We need something outside of ourselves like the mirror. 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.

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. Christ is better than that Old Testament ceremony and practice, which you might be relying upon.

And that's exactly what they're doing. So this. In this book, I said there's the better God has provided a perfect high priest and a better sacrifice in Christ, which frees these Hebrews and frees every believer from trying to be accepted by God through keeping the law with all of its trappings.

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 relevant for us today here as New Testament believers.

If we think of this, that the that Christ is better than the Old Testament sacrifices and these people are trying to be accepted by God in a way that in a means whereby it is not acceptable to God by these Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies and the washings and in the in the slaying of animals and the burning of the incense and so on, that wasn't.

That isn't the way the new covenant, the New Testament in Christ's blood, that isn't Christ, that is a foreshadow, a type of Christ, and he fulfilled it all. 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 and we're going to be accepted, even though we're believers justified by faith, even though we know that we're completely forgiven?

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? What do you think? What was that? Well, we go to church and we pray and we give.

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? Which is far better, far better. Right. Don't we sometimes get in that works mentality, even though we're saved by faith?

Sometimes we think that God will love me more if I do this, this, this and this. Or how about this? 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.

And we turn right around and do what? We do the same thing. We might sin, but we turn right around and we think 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.

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 Jesus Christ far better. He is supreme. I see a hand in the back.

Sure. And it's like there's got to be something better, something outside of what the Word of God says, something more than Christ. 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. It demonstrates this book demonstrates that Christ is the perfect, complete satisfactory, even though as we when I looked at when I preached a few weeks back, he's the one time sacrifice 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.

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. He's better than anything. He's better than any religious system.

He's better than any effort. He's better than any person. He's better than Moses. He's better than anybody. And there was no one better when it comes to saving sinners. 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.

And Jesus completely saves. Remember the hymn love lifted me souls in danger. Look above. Jesus completely saves not halfheartedly, but completely. He saves Hebrews 724 to the uttermost or completely saves us.

And no one else can do that. Notice in Hebrews chapter one, as this book begins, Jesus is even when it comes to the revelation that we have here, we even have a better revelation. It says here, God, who in sundry times and in divers manners, many ways spake in times past under the fathers by the prophets.

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, the worlds. 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.

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.

And what the danger they had of, and during this time, another one was, is that they would demote Christ and they would look to angels and they would look to other spirit beings as being far better. And right here, he even says this, that Jesus better than the angels, better than Moses, better than anyone.

Now, okay, I got that far in my thinking as far as what I'll do in Sunday school. So, so far it's been planned. And right now I shoot into the, go move into the shoot from the hip mode. 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, 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.

The second one, I think I would like to do is I would like to go into that. Whereas in the past I would read this text and I would say, wow, for me, these are uncharted waters. 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. And it has caused a lot of heartache for people.

And hopefully I'll be able to look at this just briefly with you. 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. 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? 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. They, the, this good news had come to them. They're saved there. They're believers. God has begun a work in them. And yet they haven't graduated from kindergarten.

They haven't moved on. They haven't grown. 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. 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.

And he says, look, you haven't grown up. Your babies, you should not be here. You should be further along. 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 in 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. 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 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 to be able to go on in the faith.

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. And I just I went back to chapter five so we can see how it flows from five through six, hopefully.

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.

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.

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 of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands and resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.

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 I'm going to deal with a particular group of people here.

And here's one and here's another. We're going to see that there is a contrast. There's two different groups of people being spoken of. In 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 and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.

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 chain. 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, and what what are they telling you?

You can lose your salvation. Now, when I when I hear somebody say that and they go into a text which is difficult and maybe it's you know, it takes a little bit of a study. 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, 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 and also what else can we do when it comes to a difficult passage, Charlie?

Right. Take on the whole body of scripture. 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. So they must need fine scripture that will teach that or or at least bolster that position.

And of course, there was somebody sometime back whenever who read this text and and twisted it and said, this is what it says. If a person can fall away, verse six, and if a person falls away, I mean, they were they were in look at they were enlightened.

They they tasted the heavenly gift. 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. Well, what I do is I I say, OK, Lord, please teach me what this means.

I want to study this in its context. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to approach this with all the other scripture that the Holy Spirit has taught me, has taught you about salvation. And we think when it comes to salvation, God gives us eternal life.

John, chapter 10, I given to them eternal life and they shall never perish. Verse 27, 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.

The scripture there where we are eternally secure. Nobody can pluck the child of God out of the out of the hand of God. 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.

You know, you're you're you're if you fail, you're going to be out or I. We could read Romans, chapter eight, and it would be it would be temporary adoption. We're adopted in the family of God. But if we mess up, we're out.