Hebrews Lesson 70 November 30,
2006
NKJ Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Before we get started in our study
of Hebrews, I want to start reading some things to you from the newsletters
that come out from Voice of the Martyrs. I think this is great because it gives us a
little exposure to what other Christians are going through and how the gospel
is making an impact in some tough areas around the world. The excerpt that I
want to read this evening is contained in a book that they have published
containing various testimonies from the underground Iranian Church. All we see
in the news is what goes on with Ahmadinejab and
their various threats against Israel and against the West. It doesn’t look like
too many good things are going on over there. But, there is a tremendous
underground movement going on in Iran where hundreds if not thousands of
college age young people are turning to Christianity and coming to faith in the
gospel. It is extremely difficult because of the religious persecution and
oppression that exists in any Islamic society. So this excerpt begins with a
quote from one of the young men involved in giving out the gospel.
I was kicked out from another place,
but many had found the Lord. Then authorities wanted to isolate me even more
and sent me to another town 100 miles away. They made me drive way out of town
for 4 years to an isolated clinic because I refused to grow a beard or wear
clothing like theirs and be an informer. About 300 people came to my clinic (This is apparently from a doctor) each month
even in the desert area. Every day I drove about 100 miles back and forth. I
had to get up at 6 in the morning, drive outside the city, and across the
desert to get there on time. The authorities thought they were punishing me,
but Jesus used me to reach new people.
Then there is a note that this man
was arrested and taken to police headquarters and there he was interrogated. He
says in his testimony…
In this two-story building there is
a basement where all of the torture is going on. Upstairs is where they do the
interrogations. Even with a blindfold I knew they were taking me all the way
down. We walked to a room which I saw later had only one door, no windows, no
light. They said, “Sit down.” Then a man with a light behind me pulled off the
blindfold. They shined a bright light in my eye so I wouldn’t see who was interrogating
me. The man behind the light said, “Tell us the truth. We will help you out.
What are you doing? Tell us and we will help you not to be on the bad list. We
see some suspicious people come and go to your office and ask for you
specifically. There are also some Afghani and some Armenian people. Tell us
what is going on.” I got a little angry with them. I said, “Whoever comes to me
it is because I am a doctor. They need help.” Later on the police released
him.
He goes on to say…
We must move the clinic every two to
three years. We have moved six times so far. This is the 7th place
we have moved to in 13 years. Yet, this is not important. We don’t want any
home here because we know where our home is. We are always ready to go to our
main home with Jesus. I am not afraid of death because I know where I am going.
John 3:16 tells our family when you believe and seek Jesus you have abundant life,
you have everlasting life. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
So that is one of many testimonies
of Christians who are actively involved in handing out Bibles, passing out
tracts and giving the gospel to people in an Islamic society. We need to
constantly be in prayer, not just for missionaries that are in Iran or Jordan.
There is the Jordan Theological Seminary. The president is a man that I went
through seminary with. There are other works and teams of missionaries going
into Islamic countries all over the world. Their lives are in danger every
single day. So we should just generally be in prayer for them.
Let’s go to our study this evening
in Hebrews. We are in Hebrew 6:9. Before we start off in Hebrews 6:9, it is
necessary I think to go back and do some review and reorient our thinking so we
know how we got to where we are. We are just about in the middle of the book
now, but we need to go back and see what has gone on already. I want to start
off by reading this next couple of verses to you so we understand where we are
headed. When we go back and do this review it is pointed to a particular
direction. We have to understand how we got from 1:1 to these particular
verses. So, let’s just look at 9
and 10. The writer then says…
NKJ Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes,
things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.
Remember he just gave them this dire
warning that because they had become dull of hearing they can be in danger of
regressing to point for all practical purposes it is just about impossible to
recover spiritually. But then he shows the hope. That is the point of this next
section. No matter how bad it gets, no matter what you have done, no matter how
spiritually regressive you have been, no matter how carnal you have been, there
is always hope in the grace of God. God’s grace always provides the solution.
NKJ Hebrews 6:10 For God is
not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown
toward His name, in
that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
There are a couple of things that we
need to point out here to just keep in the front of your mind as we go through
our review. That is this statement that God won’t forget your work and labor of
love. As grace-oriented believers you understand the gospel of grace that is
based on the work of Christ and not on the basis of our works. Too often
grace-oriented believers have a problem when it comes to passages like this and
they start talking about works. So we have to understand the doctrine of work
in the Scripture. Now most of you are aware of what this signifies because we
have gone through this several times as we have gone through our study on
Sunday mornings in those 7 letters to the 7 churches in Revelation. Each time
those evaluation reports begin they begin with the statement from Jesus that “I
know you work”. So work isn’t a bad word. It is not like Maynard G. Krebs (if
you remember Dobie Gillis).
“Works!”
It is not automatically something
terrible.
So let’s go back to Hebrews 1:1 and
take a run through the first six chapters to end up where we are now in 6:9. Remember
the theme of Hebrews is to challenge Christians who are on the verge of
chucking it. They are on the verge of just stopping and reverting back to
Judaism. These are believers who have come out of a Jewish background. They
were probably priests who functioned in the service in the temple. They are on
the verge going back into Judaism. The theme of the writer is to challenge
these Christians to remain faithful in these last days. That challenge is just as valid for
gentiles at any time, not to give up, not to just reach a state of satisfaction
in the Christian life, but to continue to hold fast and press forward to
spiritual maturity. So Hebrews is a challenge to remain faithful and steadfast
in our spiritual growth today in light of future service in the Millennial
Kingdom. That is what it is oriented toward – the future. You have to
remember that the decisions we make today determine who we are not only today
but they will also determine our role and our responsibility in the Millennial
Kingdom and in heaven.
As we go through this book I pointed
out in the introduction that I believe that Hebrews really isn’t an epistle. It
is often referred to as an epistle and almost every Bible you have got refers
to the epistle. If you have a Scofield Reference
Bible or some versions of King James it might even say the Epistle of Paul to
the Hebrews even though the text doesn’t identify the author. So we have to be
careful. But it isn’t an epistle because it doesn’t fit the standard format of
an epistle. There is no salutation to the Hebrews -grace and peace to you. There
are not closing remarks at the end. There are a number of other things that you
normally have associated with a letter that aren’t here. It probably is a
written out sermon much like the transcript that we published from the message
on Crisis in Pastoral
Leadership. This was a sermon that was taken and then transcribed, written
out and sent as a letter. I believe the epistle by James is the same kind of
thing. There are elements in here because of its organization that fit more of
a verbal instruction pattern than a written tool. That has to do with its
structure.
There are five basic points that are
made in the outline of the book.
We studied the first three.
The first section; Hebrews 1:1:2:4
The first section goes from 1:1 to
2:4. Actually 1:1-4 is an opening prelude where the basic theme or foundation
for the doctrinal message, the teaching (the exposition) is laid out and is
grounded in the ultimate revelation and completed revelation of God in Jesus
Christ. So we have this opening prelude and then there is a doctrinal
exposition or didactic explanation (that is a teaching). It is an instruction
to the church related to various passages of Scripture. Of course as we saw
from 1:5-14 there are several Old Testament passages that are cited and woven
together by the writer of Hebrews to make his point. So it begins with the
doctrinal exposition, the didactic section. Then it is followed by an
exhortation and warning. That is what we have as we go through each of these
sections. So just to review the outline, we go through the first section.
The second section; Hebrews 2:5-4:13
Then the second section picks up a
couple of main ideas from the first section, develops that out in the doctrinal
exposition form 2:5-3:6. And then beginning in 3:7 we have our practical
exhortation. An exhortation is an application and a challenge mixed together. It
is taking the teaching that we just had and driving it home in terms of a
practical application. So if you want to understand how the first century
apostles understood application, this is a good place to go. You read through
this section in 3:7 to 4:13, most Christians today would probably have a
problem with this as application because you have to know too much Old
Testament to understand it. They want to have something that is easy to take
home and chew on.
The third section - Hebrews 4:14-6:20
The third section (the one we are
in) is from 4:14 to 6:20. But
4:14-5:11 is a fairly brief section that is interrupted because the writer says
that the readers aren’t hearing what he is saying about the high priesthood of
Melchizedek.
“You are too dull of hearing.”
He starts to blast them for their
spiritual regression. He gives them this dire warning in verse 4-8, but then he
comes back and in a very encouraging grace-oriented manner he says, “We are
convinced of better things for you. Don’t give up. We are confident that there are better things for you.”
So, section three is composed of
that doctrinal or didactic exposition from 4:15-5:10. Then from 5:11 on we have
our practical exhortation or warning. So that is the structure that we have
gone through.
Let’s hit some of the high points
that we have studied. In those first 4 verses there is an emphasis on the
completion, the culmination of God’s revelatory process in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The writer begins by saying…
NKJ Hebrews 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in
time past to the fathers by the prophets,
NKJ Hebrews 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of
all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
This is a finished work. It is a completed action. I want you to
pay attention to this terminology that we have.
Again and again and again as we go
through Hebrews you ought to underline every time you have verbiage related to
God speaking or God saying or God calling. There is this constant theme of God speaking that implies
and demands our obedient response.
You see this thread that runs all the way through the book of
Hebrews. So there is this
culmination – everything in history has led to the revelation of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
As Paul said in Galatians 4:4…
NKJ Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born
of a woman, born under the law,
He had to wait for the right time in
human history. He had to prepare
the nations and He had to prepare Israel for this revelation of His Son. He couldn’t just do it. Jesus could not have come in Adam’s
generation or in Abraham’s generation or in Moses’ generation or in Daniel’s
generation. The time wasn’t
right. It had to wait for the
right time.
In this revelation we learned
several things about the Lord Jesus Christ. We learned that He is the heir of
all things. This is a key concept in the whole book of Hebrews - inheritance. Jesus
Christ is the heir of all things and we become joint-heirs with Him. The
emphasis secondly is on the Son as the creator of the world. Then in verse 3
the writer goes on to describe the Son as the exact duplicate of the Father in
essence and in power. So the Son is not just the Son in terms of humanity; He
is the Son in terms of deity and is completely equal to the Father in His
essence.
Further he goes on to emphasize that
it is the Son who has entered into history. He is the one who paid the penalty
for our sins as a man. So the
hypostatic union lies behind the explanation of verses 1-4. The Son is man
– perfect man and is true humanity. He enters history, pays the penalty
for sin and then because of His victory over death in the resurrection He is
promoted to and He is brought to and ascends to heaven where He sits at the
right hand of God the Father on the Father’s throne as we have seen in our
study of Revelation 3:21. In His humanity He is elevated over the angels so
that now there is a human being sitting at the command post of the universe. A
human being has been elevated over the angels. It is the Second Adam, the Lord
Jesus Christ who is in that position and we will join Him – that is the
exciting thing – we will join Him as joint heirs in that inheritance that
culminates in His kingdom.
We went through the whole study on
the ascension and session of the Lord Jesus Christ and how that doesn’t come to
completion until He returns at the Second Coming. Daniel 7 says that the Son of Man comes to the earth to
establish His kingdom. That is when the inheritance is realized. These 4 verses provide a brief but jam-packed
and brilliant explanation of the Son in terms of His past accomplishments. But
what is involved here is that in these past accomplishments are set in the
context of His future destiny as an heir. That sets the foundation for the rest
of the book. Then from verse 5 through 14 the writer connects the superiority
of the Son and His accomplishments with His destiny to rule the planet as the
Davidic son. He cites all the
various psalms and interconnects this with the realization and the fulfillment
of the Davidic Covenant. Now Jesus Christ came. Gabriel announced His coming
and announced to Mary that He was going to come and rule on the throne of His
father David. So His birth is announced in terms of reigning as the Davidic
heir. He came to offer the
kingdom. John the Baptist said to repent for the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Jesus announced to repent for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The disciples
were all sent out to Israel, not to Gentiles, to announce to repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. The
Jews rejected it and rejected Him as the king. They crucified Him so the
kingdom is postponed. It wasn’t partially inaugurated. That is what a lot of
people say today – that we are in some form of the kingdom. There are a
lot of problems with that. We are not in any form of the kingdom. We are in the
Church Age.
So in verse 5-14 there is this emphasis.
The writer builds line upon line. He takes each of these Old Testament passage
and he weaves them together to bring our attention upon this future kingdom
that is characterized by an eternal throne and a scepter of righteousness in
that particular kingdom. All of that leads us to the conclusion that the angels
who are now over us will in the future be under us. So part of their responsibility today is that these angels
minister to those who will inherit salvation. That is in the last verse of the first chapter.
NKJ Hebrews 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those
who will inherit salvation?
It is not saying for those who were
saved (past tense); but for those who will inherit salvation. It is a future oriented concept. That is realizing the fullness of our
inheritance when salvation is completed - phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3 when we
are absent from the body face to face with the Lord. The Lord comes in His
kingdom. That is when we inherit salvation. So it is a future oriented concept.
That leads to the first warning.
Salvation is not what we got when we
trusted Christ as Savior. Salvation is what we are headed toward in the
realization of this whole process as it comes to its culmination at the Judgment
Seat of Christ and our return with Jesus Christ to rule and reign on the earth.
That is Hebrews 2:3
NKJ Hebrews 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the
first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who
heard Him,
That is escape judgment. See the Jews neglected what they had in
the desert. That is the backdrop
for that. They neglected what they
had. So they were judged. If that happened to them, what more
will happen to us if we neglect all that we have in relationship to our
destiny. The warning is that we
need to focus on our spiritual life living each day in light of eternity.
Then we come into the second
section. In the second section there is a doctrinal exposition. The doctrinal exposition
is from 2:5 down to 3:6. In that instructional or pedagogical section as he is
teaching them on the basis of these Old Testament ideas he starts to unpack
even more this whole idea of Jesus being elevated over the angels. That is the
point he establishes in that first section – Jesus is superior to the
angels at the ascension. He is elevated over the angels and the angels now
serve us who are going to be heirs of this future salvation. Now let’s unpack
that concept and see where that leads us.
So he starts off in verse 5.
NKJ Hebrews 2:5 For He has not put the world to come, of which we
speak, in subjection to angels.
In other words the future age, the
Millennial Age, isn’t in subjection to angels; it is in subjection to the bride
of Christ. It is in subjection to us. So that is what he begins to develop. So
he emphasizes the point that man was made lower than the angels because his
future destiny is to be elevated over the angels. We are in a training ground
right now unlike anything the angles went through.
Second, he points out that Jesus
Christ as true humanity has been elevated above the angels. He is our pioneer
and He sets the course so that now we realize that a human being is over the
angels and at the command post of the universe. That is in verse 9.
NKJ Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the
suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God,
might taste death for everyone.
Then in verse 10-13 he points out
that in His humanity (not as God in His deity not using is omniscience,
omnipotence and omnipresence and not utilizing all of His powers) He is
qualified to go on the basis of humility of obedience and His spiritual growth
(that takes Him through maturity and adversity testing) to go to the cross. So
Jesus Christ qualifies in His humanity by using the same tools, the same
doctrines, the same Holy Spirit that you and I use.
Now don’t take me wrong here. In a
theoretical sense it is possible for us once you are saved with the Holy Spirit
to be sinless. None of us are ever going to do that. No one is going to do
that. I am not teaching sinless perfection. Don’t take me wrong. I am just
saying that theoretically that’s possible. If you were to start walking by the
Spirit from the instant you were saved until you died, you would never
sin. You still have the sin nature
even though the power is broken. It is still there and we are all going to sin.
We are never going to be sinless and no one is ever going to reach perfection. The
pattern was set by Jesus in His humanity to show that it’s there. You can do
it. The Holy Spirit is powerful enough to do it. The Word of God is true enough
for you to do it. The problem is
your own volition. You are just not going to do it. But grace always provides
the solution. When you fail you have got I John 1:9 and forgiveness so that we
can continue to press on to maturity. He points out that Jesus is the pioneer
of our spiritual life. He is the archegos. He is the one who is
the pathfinder who sets the course for us. We follow in His example.
He concludes that since Christ had
victory over sin and over death, He is promoted to the position of High Priest.
That is what all of this is going from. The first section laid the groundwork
that Jesus is superior to the angels. He is promoted over the angels. Why did
He get promoted over the angels? Because in His humanity He went through all of
this adversity testing and in true humility never yielding to arrogance, never
sinning He qualifies to go to the cross and because (as it is going to be
pointed out in the application section) He is tested in every point as we are
yet without sin He is now a High Priest who can commiserate with our weaknesses.
That is where all of that is headed. So because He goes through the whole
process of testing just as we do, He is qualified for that promotion to be the
High Priest. So he moves from superiority over the angels to His being testing
in His humanity to qualifying Him to be the High Priest. Guess what is going to
be developed in the next section – His High priesthood. See how logically
this flows.
He will then start to show why the
high priesthood of Christ is so important. First you have to understand that it is not an Aaronic high priesthood, it is a Melchizedekean
high priesthood.
“But you are to spiritually dull to
listen!”
So then he goes through his
diversion in the warning passage of Hebrews 6. At the end of that in Hebrews
6:13 then he begins to come back again to the point he was trying to make about
the high priesthood of Christ and its Melchizedekean
background. That is what gets developed in Hebrews 6, 7, and 8. That sort of gives you an idea of where
he is going. It is always helpful to have an idea of where you are going so you
understand how you are getting there.
So back to the exhortation and
warning in 3:7-4:13. That section you remember focuses on the importance of
understanding our future rest in the Millennial Kingdom. That is analogous to
the rest the Jews were to experience once they entered into the Promised Land.
So the illustrations in the warning section from 3:7 down through 4:10 all
focus on that failure of the Exodus generation to enter the rest because they
didn’t mix the promises of God with faith. So because of their failure to pursue spiritual growth they
failed to realize their inheritance. They jeopardized their inheritance. They
didn’t enter into the land. The
only two that entered into the land and realized their inheritance were Caleb
and Joshua because they trusted God.
But that whole generation including Aaron and Moses all failed to trust
God at some point or another and so they lost their inheritance in the land. They
never were allowed to enter into the land.
We look at that section and three
times we have a quotation from Psalm 95:7. In verse 7 it reads…
NKJ Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His
voice,
NKJ Hebrews 3:8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in
the wilderness,
Then it is quoted again in verse
15.
NKJ Hebrews 3:15 while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden
your hearts as in the rebellion."
Then again in 4:7…
NKJ Hebrews 4:7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today,"
after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His
voice, Do not harden your hearts."
What is he trying to say? Don’t
harden your hearts. Don’t be foolish and stubborn spiritually like that Exodus
generation was. You can do the same thing today that they did.
You can reach a spiritual plateau
and say, “I am happy and satisfied.”
The next thing you know you are
sliding back into spiritual regression and divine discipline and jeopardizing
your inheritance again – not your salvation because you can never lose
that. That is the heart of this warning in this particular section.
So what the writer is saying there
is that just as the entry into the Promised Land for the Jews to the Exodus
generation would have been to realize their ownership and inheritance in the
blessing of the land that flowed with milk and honey. They lost that because of
spiritual hardness of heart and because of spiritual failure. That is the
analogy. That is the point of rest that he is talking about. You and I have a
future rest. That is where he concludes when he says in 4:8…
NKJ Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have
spoken of another day.
You see there is another rest beyond
the rest in the kingdom. That is the challenge. So he concludes with this
challenge.
NKJ Hebrews 4:9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
NKJ Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall
according to the same example of disobedience.
They weren’t diligent. But we need
to be diligent that we enter that rest lest anyone fall. How do we do this? It
is on the basis of the Word of God.
NKJ Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
So the key idea in that section is to hear what? Hear His
voice. It takes us right back to Hebrews 1.
NKJ Hebrews 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the
fathers by the prophets,
NKJ Hebrews 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of
all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
He has spoken today. Are you going
to listen?
If you will hear His voice –
that is the fullness of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ – don’t
harden your hearts as they did in the rebellion.
So the final exhortation is to enter
the rest.
We say, “How do we do that?”
It is on the basis of the Word of
God. It is on the basis of the sufficient Word of God. That is all you need. If
you were taken today and dropped down into some back water jungle, primitive
island in the South Pacific and all you had was your Bible; then that is all
you would ever need to face any problem, any difficulty that you would ever
face. That is it. That is what we mean by the sufficiency of Scripture. You
don’t need to have counseling textbooks by Freud or any other counselor to
figure out personal relationship problems. You don’t have to learn how to live
the purpose driven life. You don’t have to have any of these other things. All
you need is the Word of God. That is sufficient. You have the Word of God and
the Spirit of God. We don’t need anything else in terms of our spiritual life.
So where does he go from here? Section 3
Starting in verse 14 he gives a
doctrinal explanation where he takes the concept of a high priest and he starts
to unpack that idea. We have a High Priest and He is our high priest because He
is just like us. He is a true human being. He is not like us because He never
had a sin nature, but He is like us in terms of our humanity. He went through
all the same tests that we go through. That is how he begins the next
section.
NKJ Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
He picks up that idea from the first
chapter. He has gone through the heavens. He is elevated over the angels. He is
promoted over the angels. We have this High Priest who has ascended above the
angels and therefore let us hold fast our confession. In other words - let us hold onto our doctrine. Don’t give
it up. Doctrine is important. That’s
what confession describes. Why?
NKJ Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our
weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
We have a High Priest who
understands what we have gone through so we can’t really blow a lot of smoke at
Him. We can’t rationalize, justify.
He says, “Been there. Done that, but
I got the T-shirt. You are not going to get it. You keep blowing it.”
So we have a High Priest who can
sympathize. He understands what we are going through. What then is the
exhortation?
NKJ Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
It is dependence upon God to go
through those tough times.
Hold your place right here and I
want to go forward a couple of chapters to chapter 10.
In chapter 10 (that is skipping
ahead into the fourth section of the book) I want you to see how these ideas
get picked up and woven into future exposition. We get into the exhortation section in the fourth section
and here is what we read.
NKJ Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the
Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
It is the same idea, but he has
added something. In chapter 4 he is talking about the high priesthood of
Christ. Then he is going to develop that high priesthood aspect and tie it.
What can we expect? What is he going to tie it to? he concept of the blood of Jesus. What is he going to tie it
to? He is going to tie it to the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. A priest performs sacrifice and
offerings. That is exactly what we see when we get into chapter 5. What does a
priest do? Just the general principle of priesthood in 5:1 that a priest is
appointed by God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. So we are going to see
these threads are going to be picked up. So by the time we get to that fourth
exhortation
NKJ Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood
of Jesus,
NKJ Hebrews 10:20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is, His flesh,
NKJ Hebrews 10:21 and having
a High Priest over the house of God,
So he is going to come into this and
explain for us why all of this is important.
Then he says…
NKJ Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water.
NKJ Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
NKJ Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
You see how all of this connects. He
is building a case one element at a time. He is not like Paul. He isn’t just
giving us 3 or 4 verses that are loaded with all of this intricate theology. He
is taking it and building it one layer at a time – line upon line,
precept upon precept, here a little there a little. He is giving us that whole
methodology.
In chapter 5 after laying out the
principle that we have a high priest who takes us before the throne of grace in
prayer because we have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses in
the first four verses in chapter 5 all he does is lay out the general principle
of priesthood. A priest serves God and offers gifts and sacrifices to God.
NKJ Hebrews 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
That emphasizes His position as the
Son of God, as deity. Yet as a human He learned obedience by the things that He
suffered. He had to go through that process of learning humility and learning
authority orientation. If Jesus had to go through that, don’t you think that we
have to go through that? He is already sinless and He still has to learn
obedience to the things that He suffered. We go through the same process and we
have got the additional problem of being fallen creatures. So 5:8 is a key
verse. The result is given in verse 9.
NKJ Hebrews 5:9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to
all who obey Him,
How was He matured? By going through
the tests and suffering.
NKJ Hebrews 5:10 called by God as High Priest "according to the order of
Melchizedek,"
That’s where the writer of Hebrews
breaks off at the end of verse 10. He then turns around and says, “But you
can’t listen to this.”
There are some doctrines you can’t
listen to. People come in
here. I am sure that this
happens. I hear about it every now
and then.
Someone says, “I sat there and I
didn’t get a word that was going on.”
They are hip deep in carnality and
they can’t process even baby food anymore much less anything that gets into any
details in the Scripture. I can understand
that because if you have gone to any number of so-called Bible teachers or
congregations in this city or watched TV and that is all you have ever heard;
then when you have somebody come along and actually teach the Bible, it’s going
to blow you away because you have never heard anything like that before.
So the writer of Hebrews says, “You
can’t hear it. I have a lot to say. It is hard to explain because you have
become dull of hearing.”
So then there is the exhortation
beginning in verse 11. The exhortation continues to the end of 6:20. Up to this point the warnings and exhortations
have been together. But here they are going to be separate. You have an
exhortation or challenge. In the midst of it is the dire warning of the
impossibility of repentance in chapter 6:4-8. The exhortation can be
summarized.
1. Don’t ever be satisfied
with where you are spiritually, press forward. Press on. Hold fast. Keep going.
Don’t become a complacent satisfied Christian thinking that you have learned
enough. There is always more to learn. If you get that way you will be
surprised when you end up in your resurrection body and discover that you are
going to have an eternity of learning. We are never going to be omniscient;
even in our resurrection bodies we are never going to be omniscient. But God is
omniscient. So He has an infinite amount of stuff to teach us that He can’t
teach us now. But when we get to
heaven we have school for infinity. I know that really depresses some of you
right away.
2. There is a dire warning
here that you can regresses at any moment. You can become complacent - slip on that spiritual banana peel
and fall right on your keaster and you will have a
tough time recovering if you don’t recover right away, if you stay there. You
can regress. You can lose ground.
3. It is possible to
regress to the point of no return, from which you will most likely not recover.
That is tough point for a lot of people. I am not saying it is an absolute
point-of- no-return. I am not saying that you can reach a point that nothing
will happen. It is a practical point. It is that you can reach a point in
spiritual regression where apart from the intervention of God you are not going
to recover. See with God all
things are possible, but with us they are not. The context that we have to
understand here is that within the context of Hebrews, we are to be encouraging
one another. Pay attention to two
verses – Hebrews 3:13.
NKJ Hebrews 3:13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
What happens when you get hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin? Then it is going to be impossible for anyone else
to help. You see when you look at that verse; we get down into the 5 participles
in the warning section. The key to it is understanding that infinitive. There
is no subject of the infinitive. There is no grammatical subject to the
infinitive. In other words it
doesn’t say it is impossible for God to renew them to repentance. It doesn’t
say it is impossible for Jesus to renew them. There is no stated subject. So it
is impossible for whom to renew them?
Well, who is supposed to do the encouraging in the book of Hebrews? It
is one another. It is part of the body of Christ, the friends that you have,
other believers, family members who encourage you. It is not some stranger. You
always have some people that get in arrogance. They see somebody across the
church and they see somebody say something or do something and they have no
context of relationship.
They are as foolish as they can be
and they say, “I want to encourage you to stop doing that.”
“Get out of my face it is none of
your business.”
But there is context of
relationship. We have family. We have friends and we see the impact of spiritual
regression in their lives. Because we are in the context of a relationship with
them, we are already a trusted individual who can then come alongside and
encourage them not to fall apart spiritually. But then we always run into the
ones who give us that look and we know they are not going to listen
anymore. That is where the warning
comes in. It is impossible for us
to renew them to repentance. Hebrews 10 brings back this theme again in a well
known passage.
NKJ Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
Again and again we have this thing
of love and good works coming up. So we have to make sure that we understand
what that is talking about.
NKJ Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner
of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
There are always people - you know
them. You have got them in your family. You have seen them in church. You know
that they have tubed it spiritually, but they have
put up a wall and you can’t do anything spiritually anymore. It is in the hands of God and we have
to believe God that the Holy Spirit somehow will take out that spiritual 2x4 and
slap them up the side of the head.
When I say it is a point-of-no-return, it is a point-of-no-return from
our perspective. It is a point-of-no-return in the sense that unless God
intervenes there is not going to be return. That is what the writer says right
here in the context.
NKJ Hebrews 6:3 And this we will do if God permits.
But you see sometimes God says, “You
are carnal. You have gone through this negative volition thing long enough. I
am going to leave you in your misery as an object lesson and an opportunity to
test all of the believers around you.”
NKJ Hebrews 6:7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and
bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from
God;
That is you are like the earth. You take in all of the
grace of God that He provides in terms of the Spirit of God and the Word of
God. If you drink it in, what is the result? It bears fruit useful for those by
whom it is cultivated.
NKJ Hebrews 6:8 but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose
end is to
be burned.
“Bears thorns and briars” is the
regressive carnal believer.
That is the burning of lost rewards.
It is non-fruitful, non-productive. So we see here that the goal of the
spiritual life is to be productive, to be fruitful.
We did a lengthy study. We tied
passages together - John 15 with the vine - abiding in Christ. Abiding Christ
is the only way to produce fruit in John 15. Then we connected that to Galatians 5: 16 f. When you
are doing that you produce the fruit of the Spirit. So the only necessary
condition to produce fruit in Galatians 5 is to walk in the Spirit. Well if in
John 15 the only condition for producing fruit is to abide in Christ and in
Galatians 5 the sole condition for producing fruit is to walk by the Spirit,
then walking by the Spirit and abiding in Christ must be tantamount to the same
thing. They are two sides of the same coin.
That is related to the filling of
the Spirit because the Spirit fills us with His Word. We connected Ephesians 5:18 with Colossians 3:16. The Spirit is the one who fills us with
His Word. We connect Galatians
5:18 with Colossians 3:16.
The Spirit is the one who fills us with His Word. When we are out of fellowship, that
sanctifying ministry is grieved, quenched, and shut down. The Spirit is doing a lot of other things
in your life. He is not producing
growth in your life, not forward momentum. That can only happen when you get back in fellowship and
start walking in the light as He is in the light as John says in I John 1.
The end result of all this is to
produce fruit. But it is not
because I am going out there and pulling myself up by my spiritual bootstraps
to produce fruit. That can’t
happen. Paul tried that in
Romans 7. But in Romans 7 he says some interesting things about fruit that are
important to pay attention to.
NKJ Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through
the body of Christ, that you may be married to another -- to Him who was raised
from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
That “joining to Him who is raised
from the dead” is what happened at the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When we trust Christ as savior we are
identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection and we are united
together with Christ.
Why? What is the purpose
clause here? That we should bear
fruit to God. You weren’t saved so that you could just spend eternity in heaven
and relax. You were saved for a purpose – to bear fruit, but not out of
the flesh. That was the problem
that Paul way trying to deal with in Romans 7 - to do it in the flesh.
NKJ Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused
by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
You see you can bear the wrong kind of fruit. That is
what happens when you are not walking by the Spirit.
In verse 6 Paul goes on to say…
NKJ Romans 7:6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we
were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the
oldness of the letter.
Serve is the same concept we are running into in
Hebrews 6:10 that we should be involved in ministry and serving in the newness
of the Spirit, and not the oldness of the letter. That is what energizes
Christian service – however it manifests itself in your particular life
and in your particular experience.
Ephesians 5:9 says...
NKJ Ephesians 5:9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth)
We are not talking about evangelism. You will go to all
kinds of places saying, “You need to have fruit, go out and witness.”
Fruit is character. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness against which there is no
law. It is character. It is the character of Christ. You see we were saved for
this purpose.
NKJ Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
There is a purpose to salvation. Once you are saved in
the family, God has got a job for us. It is to grow to spiritual maturity. The
Holy Spirit produces fruit so that we can love one another in the body of
Christ. We are to walk in those good works.
NKJ Colossians 1:10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
There again we see fruit and work linked together. We
are reminded in Romans 7:5 that there is also the wrong kind of fruit.
NKJ Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused
by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
Now just to show that work and fruit aren’t bad words,
I Corinthians 3:13 says that at the Judgment Seat of Christ each man’s work
will become evident.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 3:13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because
it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what
sort it is.
Someone will say, “That is just bad ones.”
No, look at verse 14.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 3:14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
You see, work is not a bad word. Fruit is not a bad
word. This doesn’t involve works by the law – works trying to impress God
by what we do or by how we say it or do it. It is the work of the Holy Spirit
in us. That is the contrast – between the work and the fruit that is
self-generated in the power of the flesh and that which is produced by the
Spirit of God in conjunction with the Word of God and that is the only thing
that has eternal value. But to get there we have to grow to spiritual maturity.
It is the by-product of spiritual maturity not the way to get spiritual
maturity. So that is where the writer of Hebrews goes because after blasting
them he says…
NKJ Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes,
things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.
It is
very positive here. We will get to that and start dealing with this doctrine of
works and labor of love which is introduced in this next verse next time.