Hebrews Lesson 159 May 14, 2009
NKJ Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with
wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not
faint.
We’re in Hebrews 10, verse 8. Last
time we focused on the Doctrine of the Humanity of Jesus and went through the
passages from Genesis 3:15 all the way up into the New Testament talking about
and emphasizing the humanity part of Jesus. That is what’s emphasized in this
section because only as a man could He stand as our substitute. I want to point
out a couple of verses as we think about this. Go back to verse 4.
NKJ Hebrews 10:4 For it is not
possible
Some translations say it is
impossible.
that the blood
of bulls and goats could take away sins.
That’s the point. No one other than
a human being could die as a substitute for the human race. So that emphasis is
on the substitutionary death of Christ. But then another part of it has to do with the
qualification that comes from Jesus’ willingness to submit Himself to Father’s
will, the Father’s plan.
To emphasize this, the writer quotes
from Psalm 40:5, 6 and 7 in chapter 10. He quotes from Psalm 40:6 and then he
repeats himself. When he gets down to verse 8, he reiterates these same verses
and states them again to make the point. So I want to start this evening by
going back to verse 8, looking there, and then moving forward from there. What
we’ll see here is that 4 of the 5 offerings in Leviticus are mentioned in this
quote from Psalm 40:
NKJ Hebrews 10:8 Previously saying,
(in terms of the quote form Psalm
40:6)
"Sacrifice
and offering, burnt offerings,
Two different terms
and offerings for sin You did not desire,
nor had pleasure in them" (which
are offered according to the law),
This is a quote from Psalm 40:6 -
sacrifice and offering. Because of the word that is used this refers to the
grain offering.
NKJ Psalm 40:6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Now, that first word that is
translated sacrifice isn’t a technical word for a specific sacrifice. It’s used
for several of them. It’s the Hebrew word zebach
which simply means a sacrifice. The Greek word that’s used in the passage is thusia, which refers to a sacrifice on
any kind of offering, but it was a word that was primarily used for the grain
offering.
Then you have the word mincha which would refer to the meal
offering followed in the Greek for it prosphora
which usually refers to the same thing. We tend to translate the mincha offering.
Then, the burnt offering (which was
the offering for complete dedication commitment) went to God where everything
in the sacrifice went up to God.
This is in Leviticus 1. This is the olah offering translated by the Greek
word holakatoma. This is where we get
our word holocaust, something that is completely burnt up or destroyed. That’s
the derivation of that.
Then the last is the sin offering which
is the offering for sin. There is no mention of the trespass offering in here.
It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list; but it’s a representative list. The
point that the writer is making is simply to summarize the fact that all of the
Levitical offerings and sacrifices all of what they pointed to were fulfilled
at the cross; and there’s no longer any need for any kind of Levitical
sacrifice or offering to continue.
So in Hebrews 10:9 it goes on to
quote from Psalm 40:
NKJ Hebrews 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God."
This is the thinking that
characterized the Messiah at the incarnation. He is completely subordinate to
the will of God. So through that the writer then says:
He takes away
the first that He may establish the second.
That is the first covenant (the
Mosaic Covenant) to replace it with the second. That is a major theme that has
run through this section from chapter 8 where he talks about the New Covenant
quoting from the Old Testament that the old covenant is replaced with the New
Covenant. Therefore, the very fact that he uses that terminology shows that the
first covenant (the Mosaic Covenant) was a temporary covenant and that God had
a future plan to resolve the sin problem completely with a permanent sacrifice.
That is what is accomplished when Jesus dies the sacrificial death on the cross
that is the foundation for the New Covenant.
Then in verse 10 the writer states:
NKJ Hebrews 10:10 By that will we have been sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all.
“That will” here refers to the will
of the Father.
Remember verse 9. Jesus says:
NKJ Hebrews 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your
will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
The will that is being spoken of in
context is the will of the Father, the plan of the Father.
So verse 10 says:
NKJ Hebrews 10:10 By that will
That is the will of God the Father.
we have been
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
That is a finished and a completed
work.
Now one thing I want to draw your
attention to here. The key words that you should focus on in verse 10 are the
words “we have been sanctified.” It is the Greek word hagiosmenoi. It’s a periphrastic participle, which means it starts
with a finite verb from eimi (to be)
with the participial form indicating a present reality. “We are sanctified.” It’s
an aorist participle, which indicates that it is a past or completed action. We
have been sanctified and that is completed through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.
The covenantal idea is going to be
picked up later on in the chapter. This concept of the sanctification is going
to be picked up later in the chapter. In verse 16 there is another quote from
the Old Testament emphasizing the New Covenant.
Then in verse 14 there is a
statement:
NKJ Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those
who are being sanctified.
When we get to those passages in a
little while, we understand their significance because of what we see in verse
10. So this sets the stage that we’re not talking about ongoing sanctification.
Remember we have three phases of sanctification, just like we talk about three
phases of salvation.
So we have to look at the text and
say, “What kind of sanctification are we talking about here?”
The completed idea indicates that
this is talking about phase 1 and that relates of course to what Christ did on
the cross. The payment of the sin penalty and all of the offerings and
sacrifices foreshadowed different aspects and different facets to the work Christ
on the cross to solve that sin problem.
That brings us to the next paragraph,
which is verse 11 down through 18. The emphasis in this section is on the
finality of what Christ did on the cross.
Sometimes we lose because we’re so
comfortable with the idea. We’re so familiar with it (that Christ completed the
work) that we don’t really feel the impact of that as a fresh idea as these
Jewish (formerly Jewish priests) would have heard it because they’re going into
the Temple. They have participated in the various courses of priests, the
various groups of priest that would serve in the Temple. And they had that
experience of going into the Temple, serving in the Temple, standing on their
feet all day long, sacrificing one lamb after another, smelling the blood,
hearing the bleats of the lambs. All of this they would have heard. When the
lambs died, they would have heard all of this and smelled all the smells and
seen everything and done it day after day after day. That is what the writer of
Hebrews states in verse 11.
He said:
NKJ Hebrews 10:11 And every priest stands ministering daily and
offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
Now the word translated stands is a
perfect active indicative verb that indicates that it’s completed action. It’s
talking about something that is no longer going on but was completed in the
past. The word that’s translated ministering daily in the New King James is a
word leitourgeo, which has to do with
the serving, the service at the Temple.
Then the other word that we
emphasized in this passage is the offering, prosphereo,
which we’ve seen one form of that word or another which is translated either as
the offering as a noun form or the verb form.
So the point that is being made in
verse 11 is in contrast to the point that is being made when we get to verse
12. Verse 11 is emphasizing that ongoing routine of the priest in the Old
Testament. Every priest stood daily. They’re on their feet all day long
sacrificing the animals, offering repeatedly the same sacrifice which can never
take away sin. Now the word here that is used for taking away sin is a form of aireo. It’s periaireo here which is a form of the word that is used in Hebrews
10:4. So we have the same idea there and we need to keep that in some sort of
perspective.
Back in verse 4 he wrote:
NKJ Hebrews 10:4 For it is not
possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
These animals just can’t do it
because they’re animals. Then in verse 11 he returns to that main idea talking
about the priests stand daily, offering these sacrifices again and again. It’s
a repetitive sacrifice idea there, "which can never take away sin". It
goes on and on and on, one sacrifice after another and it never really brings
about the completion. They’re just doing it year after year, day after day; and
it never resolves the sin problem.
The contrast is between the ongoing
action of the priests that never accomplishes anything and the completed work
of Christ that accomplished everything. That’s in verse 12. So we look at verse 11 and we could
paraphrase it that “every priest stood.” It’s a completed action. It’s talking
about the past.
The time of the action is it
occurred at the same time as the standing and when he was offering the sacrifices.
In contrast you have Jesus:
NKJ Hebrews 10:12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever,
Instead of the daily idea…
sat down at the
right hand of God,
The way the construction is in the
grammar, the offering precedes the action of the main verb, which is to sit
down. So we see this comparison and contrast going on in this passage that the
priest stood; but Jesus when He finishes, sits. The priest does it continually.
It’s daily. It’s repeatedly. Jesus did it once. The priest offers the same sacrifices time after time. Jesus
offered one sacrifice. When the priest offered it, it did not take away sin.
But when Jesus’ sacrifice was offered, it did take away sin. The priests’
sacrifices were ineffectual; but Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all and is
completely effectual.
Now he moves on in his argument to
verse 12. He says:
NKJ Hebrews 10:12 But this Man,
Now that’s how the New King James
has it. I don’t know how some of the other versions may translate it. Literally
in the Greek it’s “but this one.” It’s not emphasizing His humanity here. It
just says, “But this one.”
after He had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
So the emphasis there is on the
completion of this act, and it handles the sin problem forever – at the
cross, not when somebody is saved. The sin problem is resolved at the cross,
not when they’re saved. What happens when they’re saved is the consequences of
the sin problem for them personally are what is resolved.
Remember three things have to be
resolved for a person to get into heaven. First of all, the legal penalty has
to be paid. The legal penalty was spiritual death. But when Adam died spiritually, it meant that all of his
descendents would be born spiritually dead and they would be born unrighteous.
Now when the sin penalty is paid, that doesn’t mean that their condition, the
individual’s condition of being spiritually dead and unrighteous is resolved;
only that the legal penalty in relation to God’s judicial demands are
resolved.
So God in terms of His judicial
demands that His righteousness be satisfied, looks at the cross and sees the
perfect spotless Lamb of God on the cross bearing the sins of the world. His
justice is satisfied because that legal penalty is paid. That resolves all
those universal statements about Christ dying for all, redeemed all. The world
is propitiated.
But the individual personal
condition is not resolved because of that. That means that something has to
happen to change a person from being spiritually dead to being spiritually
alive and from being unrighteous to being righteous. That is resolved at the
point of belief, faith in Christ.
So at the cross, the one man Jesus
after He had offered one sacrifice for sins - that’s all that needs to be done.
That completed it. He sat down at the right hand of the Father. This is a
purely passive posture. He is not doing anything more. This is a major
contrast.
This was a major emphasis during the
Reformation time because the Roman Catholic theology celebrated a
re-crucifixion that was ongoing whenever the mass was observed. Their view of
the Lord’s Table is what’s called transubstantiation. In transubstantiation the
bread and the wine would literally be transformed into the body and the blood
of Jesus. It’s a mystical thing based on Aristotelian concepts and substance
and accidents. But there is constant re-crucifying of the Savior; there is no
finishing of the work.
You see this whenever you go to a
Roman Catholic Church. You drive by a Roman Catholic Church. You always see
Jesus on the cross. You don’t go to a Roman Catholic Church and ever see Jesus
off the cross. He’s constantly on the cross because He’s being crucified again
and again and again for sins. It’s not really completed. One of the results of
that is you can’t ever be sure that you’re saved. You don’t know that the work
is finished and the sin problem is once for all resolved.
So this goes against the whole Roman
theology. In the Reformation period this was a battle cry for the Reformers,
for the Protestants. They weren’t going to re-crucify Jesus again and again and
again. People understood that. Today people don’t understand much theology at
all. You’re lucky if you get the gospel straight. But during the time of the
Reformation because of the fact that it was – especially in England
– you might have one year it was a death penalty to be a Roman Catholic.
The next year it might be the death penalty to be a Protestant. You’d better
understand these things because your life would depend on it.
So they understood the significance
of this that there was one sacrifice for sin and the fact that Jesus sat down
at the right hand of the Father meant that the work was completed and the sin
problem was completely resolved with the result that He is waiting now. He’s in
a posture of waiting.
NKJ Hebrews 10:13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
Now this is a verse that we’ve seen
several times quoted and alluded to in Hebrews. It’s from Psalm 110:1, that:
NKJ Psalm 110:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit
at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."
The idea here is that it is the
Father who is eventually going to bring history to a point where the enemies of
Christ are going to be ready for that defeat. That is when we connect Psalm 110
to Psalm 2 and you see that the world powers and nations are in an uproar
against God. The Lord scoffs at them in Psalm 2. He sends His Son (the Messiah,
the Anointed One) there in Psalm 2 to defeat these enemies. This is what occurs
at the Battle of Armageddon.
So Jesus is in this posture of
waiting until the right times comes. When that right time comes that’s the
imagery that we see in Revelation 4 with the Lamb coming before the throne and
the Father gives Him the scroll which is the title deed and begins to enact the
whole series of events that occur in the Tribulation period when Christ’s
enemies are made His footstool.
The picture there is a footstool is
under your feet. It’s a picture of domination and a picture of defeat. So Jesus
is in a position of waiting right now until the Father’s plan for the Church
Age comes to fruition. This is contrasted to that ongoing activity of the
priest in the Old Testament.
NKJ Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who
are being sanctified.
The offering of course is Christ on
the cross. The “perfected” here is the Greek word teleioo (the verb) indicting
completion. It is the idea that by this one offering He has brought to
completion forever those who are, not “being sanctified”, that indicates a
present ongoing action. That would be phase 2. But this is a tense that
indicates the completedness, especially based back on verse 10 that:
NKJ Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who
are being sanctified.
…those who are already saved. We
might paraphrase it that way. So again we have the familiar words here for
offering – prosphora. It means
sanctified (the present active participle of hagiazo). Here it has an article with it so it’s translated as if
it is a noun. It really doesn’t have that much of a verbal idea to it. It is
just saying – it’s like saying “to believers.” “He has perfected forever
believers.” You could paraphrase it that way because the Greek participle when
it functions as a noun. You can just translate it as if it’s a noun when it has
the article with it. So He has completed those who are saved, those who are
justified, and that is completed by His work on the cross so that is complete
and whole.
Now this takes us, especially the
verb teleioo takes us, to the use of
the perfect passive indicative, third person singular of the verb in John 19:28
and John 19:30. The scene is the cross. When Jesus has been hanging on the
cross, paying the penalty for our sins, and they’ve been imputed to Him for
three hours; He comes to the end of that time period. Now it’s after 3 o’clock
in the afternoon and John writes:
NKJ John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now
accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I
thirst!"
The words “now accomplished” are the
same verb, same tense, voice mood, person and number that you have in verse 30
– it is finished.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all
things were now finished.
See that’s one of those places where
I get a little irritated at translators because in English - when you go to
study writing, they tell you a good English writer will vary his vocabulary. He
won’t use the same word more than once in a paragraph. And this has gone on. I’ve
been reading a number of books lately on the characteristics of translations,
the history of the English Bible. This has been part of English translation
theory since at least time of the Reformation.
So you have passages like this. Sometimes
you have the same Greek word and it’ll vary in meaning as you go through the
passage. Like 1 Corinthians 2 has pneuma,
which is the word translated spirit or wind or breathe. It has three or four
different meanings in that passage. It has a meaning of the human spirit in one
verse, Holy Spirit in another verse. You have that kind of variation so it’s
important to recognize that when you translate. But in a passage like this, the
Holy Spirit is emphasizing the completedness and the finished aspect of what
Christ did on the cross. When you translate that word tetelestai with two different English words, accomplished in verse
28 and finished in verse 30, you lose what the Holy Spirit’s doing there. He
has twice stated in three verses, “It is finished”- same word emphasis Christ’s
work on the cross.
So John says in verse 28:
NKJ John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now
accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I
thirst!"
Then in John 19:30:
NKJ John 19:30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said,
"It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
It’s finished in both statements
indicating the completion. Now that word tetelestai
that Jesus uttered was also a word that was used in an economic context. Now
we’ve talked about the fact that at the cross Jesus paid the penalty for sin. That
is an economic idea - redemption. We also talk about the fact that our sins
when they were imputed to Him, that certificate of debt (Colossians 1:13-14) was
cancelled when it was nailed to the tree. That was how that was forgiven. Forgiveness
in that context when talking about the cancellation of debt is also an economic
idea. So when you take tetelestai and
link it to these theological concepts that are on the cross, you see that God
is using this whole economic idea that what was accomplished on the cross
completely paid the bill. In the ancient world when a bill was due and somebody
paid it (We would write “Paid in Full” or somebody would stamp it “Paid in
Full” on the bill), they would write tetelestai
at the bottom of a bill and it meant paid in full. It’s completed. It’s done.
Nothing more can be paid. So this emphasizes that completed work of Christ on
the cross.
NKJ Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who
are being sanctified.
NKJ Hebrews 10:15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
So then we’re going to have a quote
coming from Jeremiah 31:33-34 dealing with the New Covenant. Now the New
Covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah when we look
at that passage.
Turn back three or four pages to
Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8 has the complete quote from Jeremiah 31:31-33.
NKJ Hebrews 8:8 Because finding fault with them,
That is with the old covenant, the
first covenant as it’s identified in verse 7.
He says:
"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah --
NKJ Hebrews 8:9 "not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the
land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded
them, says the LORD.
That is a reference to the first
covenant, which was the Mosaic Covenant.
NKJ Hebrews 8:10 "For this is
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
Those days here is a reference to
their time of worldwide dispersal, the time that they’re under the fifth cycle
of discipline, the current Church Age period when they’re scattered, plus the
time of the Tribulation.
says the LORD:
I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts;
Now that hasn’t happened today. We’re
living in the Church Age and we recognize that Jesus was the sacrifice that
establishes the New Covenant; but the New Covenant hasn’t been enacted yet
because neither you nor I have the laws, have the Word of God, the doctrine
written in our minds and written on our hearts. That is what the text
says.
I remember when I first went to
seminary and I listened to somebody teach something in Acts related to the New
Covenant and you would get different views from different professors.
But I would hear some professors
say, “Well, there is an application of this to the church; and that when we
learn the Bible, then God writes it on our hearts”
But that’s not what this is saying. That
is really a distortion of the text. This has been a problem for many people
trying to understand how the New Covenant relates to the church. As I pointed
out when we went through a lengthy study of this, the New Covenant relates to
the church by virtue of the fact that you and I as Church Age believers are in
Christ. His priesthood is established by the New Covenant. He is the High
Priest; we are in Him so our relationship to the New Covenant is by virtue of
that relationship to Him as the High Priest of the New Covenant. We are not
part of the house of Israel or the house of Judah.
If you interpret that verse
literally, God is saying, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on
their heart.”
Well, who’s the “their”? The “their”
in context is the house of Judah, the house of Israel, the remnant, the
regenerate members of Israel, those who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah
during the Tribulation period, those who survive and go into the Millennial
Kingdom. At that point God is going to write that on their hearts and on their
minds.
A couple of weeks ago we went
through the stages of the Battle of Armageddon. This takes place at the end of
that campaign following the judgment, the separation of the sheep from the
goats following the judgments that relate to the 10 virgins, which pictured the
Jews - 5 who aren’t prepared. Those are the Jews who aren’t prepared for the
Messiah, not ready to go into the kingdom and the 5 that are. So this relates
to those that are ready to go into the kingdom.
When Jesus establishes the kingdom,
it’s at that point that the new Covenant is enacted. This is not talking about
regeneration. There are a lot of people who you will hear who will say that
this passage is talking about regeneration. At the point of regeneration that’s
when God writes His law upon your heart. But that is not at all what the
context indicates.
Verse 10 says:
and I will be
their God, and they shall be My people.
Once again it’s talking about
Israel. There’s no application here whatsoever to the church.
NKJ Hebrews 8:11 "None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none
his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me,
Wow! Isn’t that going to be an
interesting situation? It’s talking about Jews. It indicates that none is going
to need to teach the Law to another Jew. This is talking about the initial
generation of regenerate Jews (the Tribulation saints) who survive the
Tribulation and go into the Millennial Kingdom. Their children will be born
spiritually dead and in need of salvation. This is just speaking of the initial
generation that’s still mortal, still in their mortal bodies.
from the least
of them to the greatest of them.
See, all of Israel will be saved at
that point. Then the passage goes on to say in verse 12:
NKJ Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
Now that is a statement from
Jeremiah 31:31-33. All that the writer of Hebrews does from all those verse
that he quotes - in Hebrews it’s broken down to 5 verses – all that the writer
of Hebrews is going to apply is the phrase “the New Covenant.”
NKJ Hebrews 8:13 In that He says, "A new covenant,"
He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing
old is ready to vanish away.
That’s an interesting way in which
the Jews often applied the word. You go into Acts and you’ll see the same kind
of thing happen where three or four verses are quoted from the Old Testament,
but then the only thing that is applied is one phrase or one verse.
Okay, let’s go back to our passage
in Hebrews 10:16.
NKJ Hebrews 10:16 "This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD:
This is that same covenant. The
future covenant that God is going to have with the surviving remnant of Israel
when God says:
I will put My
laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"
NKJ Hebrews 10:17 then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will
remember no more."
So he is applying here the
significance, the impact of Christ’s death for the New Covenant and its
application to the Jews that survive the Tribulation. So He is going to draws
an application from that. In the same way that God has said that when He
applies the New Covenant to them and will remember their sins no more, that shows
that what the writer is saying is:
NKJ Hebrews 10:18 Now where there is remission
Or forgiveness
of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
If there’s a complete forgiveness of
their sin and no more of an offering, then the same thing would be true of us
because if the point of forgiveness was what that offering on the cross. It
applies in one way to that future generation of Judah and Israel that receives
the New Covenant when that’s enacted, but it applies in the same way to us
because once a final sacrifice is made, sins are forgiven.
This is a message that I’m not sure
how it plays today. I think people still recognize at some level that they’re sinners.
But in the morally relative environment in which we live now in our culture,
I’m not sure how many people are struggling with a sense of guilt before God.
They have so covered this over in resistance to God. They’ve covered this over
by suppressing the truth in unrighteousness that it only seems to pop out when
some Christian says something like this young lady who was the Miss California
in the Miss USA pageant.
She says almost apologetically that,
“Well, I believe and the way I was raised and this is what I always…”
She just qualified it in so many
ways that marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman. Yet the hostile
reaction that this has received and it’s been on the news and it’s been one
thing after another related to what she said just shows where the unbelieving
world is today. They have worked so hard to try to suppress any sense of moral
absolutes. And they’ve managed to create environments where they can live their
lives without anybody ever telling them that something is wrong. But it’s just
beneath the surface. It’s like there’s this pressure that’s keeping this
down.
As soon as somebody raises their
head a little bit and says, “There really is a God,” they just go berserk.
This is the kind of reaction that
we’re going to see among the earth dwellers in the Tribulation period. This
irrational hatred of anyone who represents God because what happens is whenever
you raise your hand and say, “Wait a minute. Maybe there’s a God or maybe there’s
an absolute out there. Or maybe there’s just an intelligent designer.” I mean
how neutral a concept can you get that we’re just going to believe in an
intelligent design? Maybe it’s Buddha; maybe it’s God; maybe it’s just an
intelligent force out there. We’re not going to say it’s God. It’s so
convicting, it tweaks that suppression mechanism and it blows it away just
enough to where all this anger just explodes from people.
So I think there is some way when
we’re witnessing to people this is the whole doctrine of forgiveness is a doctrine
to emphasize that whatever you’ve done it was paid for by Christ on the cross.
It is paid for. The forgiveness is already there. The cancellation of that debt
is already there. It’s not that you’re rubbing somebody’s nose in their sin,
which is of course a technique that fundamentalists have tried to use in the
past in evangelism. You need to make sure if somebody knows they’re a sinner. People
need to know that they’re spiritual dead. People need to know there’s a
penalty; but the emphasis needs to be on the forgiveness aspect: that their
sins are forgiven and there’s no guilt before God and there is a free gift of salvation
through Jesus Christ. He paid the penalty.
But I think that as we do that we’re
going to see more and more antagonism because we’re living in the same kind of
a era that is very much characterized by the hardness of pharaoh’s heart,
except we’re living among neighbors and politicians and news people all around
us who have hardened their hearts. It’s just another term for that suppression
of truth in unrighteousness. They have hardened their hearts and hardened their
hearts. Then when we come along and make some statement, they go berserk in
anger against us. So I think we’re going to see more and more resistance and
hostility towards Christians and those who are public in their message about
Jesus Christ and redemption.
Now the writer is going to apply
this in the next verse in a very important way. I want to look at this, 19
through 25. I want to cover it in sort of a survey fashion tonight and then
we’ll come back and look at some of the details next time. But this is the end
of a section.
The section started back in chapter
7. Chapter 7 through 10:39 is this whole section. The section down through 24
is the teaching section. This has been a very long really section. We’ve been
in this section well over a year because we took so much time to go back to
really understand all those Old Testament allusions. We had to understand the
Tabernacle. We had to understand all of the sacrifices, the burnt offering, the
fellowship offering grain offering, sin offering, and trespass offering. We had
to understand all the elements of the Day of Atonement and all of these things
because we have to get our heads into the thinking and the experiential
framework of these Jewish believers that the apostle is writing to here in
Hebrews.
When he writes this he has gone
through all of this detail again and again dealing with the covenant, dealing
with the priesthood, dealing with the sacrificial contrast. He comes to verse
19 and what does he say?
Therefore…
This is the conclusion. I find it
somewhat interesting. We all know we live in this era people go to church and
just want superficial feel good sermons. They want something practical. "Give
me something to take home today. Give me 5 points of something I can do today."
People live at this level of
superficiality. We’ve had a writer here in Hebrews go through all of this Old
Testament detail building this very tight logical case that draws together all
the sacrifices, all the functions of the priesthood, the different kinds of
priesthood, the different covenants and finally he’s going to say, “Now this is
what it means.”
He covers the application in 7
verses. Look how much time he had to take to get to application. See application
comes out of what you think. Application isn’t just "go out and do these 5
things" as if they don’t stand on a bedrock of a system of thought. He has
to build that system of thought and rationale in such a way that when he gets
to the conclusion, it makes sense.
With these Jewish believers this
should have been almost like a slap in the face. This is profound. It should
have rocked them in their understanding of their whole relationship with God
because he’s going to draw out three implications and applications from what
we’ve seen about the completedness of Christ’s work on the cross.
So he says:
NKJ Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the
Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
We’ve seen that boldness that we can
go into the presence of God because of the completed work of Christ on the
cross.
NKJ Hebrews 10:20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
This “new and living way” is the New
Covenant. Because of His death on the cross, that veil has been torn and
there’s direct access into the presence of God.
through the
veil, that is, His flesh,
Here he makes an application that the
veil is related to the flesh of Jesus, the body of Jesus (His humanity),
because it’s in His humanity that He dies on the cross. It’s in His humanity
that He pays the penalty for sin on the cross. And by paying that penalty that
which separated us from God is now permanently removed. The sins problem is
solved.
So He’s inaugurated this new way. We
now have a High Priest over the house of God. That means three things.
First of all verse 22:
NKJ Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
That’s a command; it’s not a
suggestion. It’s a first person command, first person plural. The idea is a
command, let us. The writer is including himself.
having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience
See he’s using that Old Testament
imagery of sprinkling the blood on the furniture in the Tabernacle to sanctify
it and set it apart for the service of God.
So he says now we can draw near to
God with full assurance of faith because that sprinkling that application of
Christ’s death to us is like the sprinkling of the blood and it has completely
cleansed and set us apart to service to God.
from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
What you’ll see when you read the
commentaries on this is a discussion that this is talking about baptism. I do
not think this is talking about baptism at all. This comes out of the imagery that we’ve seen in the Old
Testament ritual. The sprinkling is when they sprinkled the blood. The high
priest would on the Day of Atonement especially would take the blood from the
lamb and go in and sprinkle it in front of the Ark of the Covenant. At the
initial consecration of the Tabernacle, the priest took the blood and he went
in and he sprinkled the blood on everything. That indicated that it was now
sanctified; it was now set apart for the service of God.
The other thing that happened at the
inauguration of the high priest’s ministry is that he was washed from head to
toe. We see that same allusion in John 13 when Jesus is talking to Peter about
washing his feet. This idea of washing here is the participle, the perfect
participle of louo (omega, it’s the
perfect participle there) indicting the completed action there. It’s a once for
all completed action in the past with results that go on. It’s that picture of
the priest who is washed from head to toe as a picture of his complete
separation and sanctification when he is set apart to the service of God. Both
of these images picture what happens at the instant of salvation. So because of
that, because of the completed work of Christ, we can draw near to God with a
true heart. The conscience has been cleansed by the work of Christ.
Verse 23 is the second application,
the second command – first person command.
NKJ Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope
What he means by “confession of our
hope” is our belief in the future return of Christ, our future destiny with
Jesus Christ.
“Let’s not give it up and go back
into Judaism,” which is what they were threatening to do. They were wavering.
So he says, “Let us hold fast the
confession, the admission, the acknowledgment of our hope.”
Some of you have been around long
enough to remember that often doctrinal statements used to be referred to
confessions. Sometimes denominations would be referred to.
“What confession do you belong to?”
That would be an older form of
English coming out of the Reformation. The reformed church had a doctrinal
statement. It would be a confession. This is what they believed. The Anglican Church
would have a confession. So the term confession refers to a body of doctrine or
belief system. So that’s how the word is used here.
NKJ Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession
That is the doctrinal convictions.
of our hope without wavering, for He who
promised is faithful.
It’s built on the promise of His
coming and He is faithful.
Then in verse 24 we read:
NKJ Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
This is a mental term for thought
and consideration of one another in the body of Christ. This is an important
aspect that members of the body of Christ don’t just show up in Bible class and
take notes and have blinders on and not look at anybody else and not talk to
anybody else and not build relationships and friendships with other people. Now
you can’t build relationships and friendships with everybody. And you can’t get
to know everybody. But in a body of believers you are going to get to know some
and some are going to become closer friends than others. Not everybody is going
to know other people well enough to encourage them in their spiritual life
because you don’t know what other people are going through. But that will
happen as we build friendships and build relationships with other believers. As
we get to know each other, then part of our responsibility is to encourage one
another and to stimulate one another and to motivate one another. We know that
when we have friends who are believers when they’re down, when they’re feeling
discouraged when they feel like their lives are hopeless. They’re going through
extremely difficult times. Then it is an opportunity for us to remind them of
what the Word says and to encourage them and help strengthen them. That’s the
idea here.
in order to
stir up love and good works,
This isn’t good works to do
stuff. This is the application of
doctrine in the believer’s life. You can’t do this if you’re not involved in a
local church or a local assembly of believers.
Now that brings up another issue,
which I’ll talk about some more next time because we live in a world today
where there are many people who live steam. There are people who listen who are living in communities
where frankly they can’t find a solid local church to teach the Word.
Now there are also some who live in
communities where they can find a nursery to go to made up of a bunch of baby
believers and a pastor who feeds a lot of pabulum. But it’s not bad. It’s just
baby food. But they don’t want to go there because they’re in some form of spiritual
arrogance.
They say, “Well, I need more than that.”
But God saved you for a purpose to
minister to others in the body of Christ. “We are members of one another,” Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 12. There is interdependence among members of the body of
Christ. I’ve been teaching this for years.
I think we got sidetracked back in
the 70’s where people said, “I can go off and listen to my tape recorder and
I’m going to be fine.”
That is not the biblical picture. The
biblical picture is we’re not a bunch of isolated islanders who are off on our
own little island, doing our own little thing before God.
We are interdependent body of
believers. Each believer is given a spiritual gift to use in the body of
Christ. If you have the spiritual gift of administration, God didn’t give it to
you to use it at work. If you have the spiritual gift of helps, God didn’t give
it to you to use it with a bunch of unsaved people in your family. God gave you
those gifts to use in the body of Christ. That’s what 1 Corinthians 12 is
talking about. There needs to be this ministry within the body of Christ. So we
can’t carry out this function of considering one another to stir up or motivate
love and good works if we’re staying at home and listening to live streaming
over the computer.
Now on the other hand, I recognize
that we’re living in a world where it’s harder and harder to find something
good. But you can look. I know one man who heard me teach on this a number of
years ago now. He ended up looking at about 5 or 10 churches in his area. He
found a little country Baptist church and the pastor was fairly good; wasn’t
well-educated biblically, but he was solid as far as he went. So this man and
his family started going to the church. There were some things he didn’t quite
agree with. The pastor was a little bit lordship. But it wasn’t long before the
pastor recognized his abilities to teach the Word, and he was put in charge of
teaching the adult Sunday school class. He taught them the gospel. He taught
free grace gospel. He did some great stuff. He was there a year before he had to move to another
location. So you never know.
There are people listening to me now
and they’re going to say, “I’ve tried 5 churches.”
Well, try 5 more. You never know
where you might find some little church somewhere.
But then you might be like one guy
who heard me teach on this. I think he felt a little guilty. He lived in a
smaller community up in Vermont somewhere I believe. He checked out every
church in his town. The best church, the BEST church, didn’t believe in a
literal physical resurrection of Jesus and didn’t believe in substitutionary
atonement.
I said, “You know I’ve taken my children
there a couple of times. Robby, I’m not sure that’s the thing to do.”
I said, “No, it’s not.”
Don’t do that. If you live in an
area where you can’t find something that is acceptable, don’t go there. But
don’t try to justify some form of isolationism just because there’s no church
teaching much beyond a pabulum level. Maybe you can be involved in a church
that you find somewhat acceptable and have a ministry there. I know how
difficult that is. I’ve had friends of mine, men who are pastors and have been
in the ministry and have moved to areas like Fort Worth, Texas and spent years
trying to find a decent church and have not found one. But they’ve gone a year
here and year there and a year someplace else. So it is a challenge.
The chapter ends that:
NKJ Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as
is the manner of some,
They were beginning already to
isolate themselves and fall away.
but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you
see the Day approaching.
We are to be encouraging one
another. And trust me, the days are coming and coming soon. We see the storm
clouds on the horizon. I do not think things are going to be very good in the
coming years. I think there’s going to be increasing hostility to Christians. There’s
going to be increasing decisions that are made at a political and a legislative
level. If Christians do not band together and support each other, then it will
be very difficult to survive without that support base of other believers.
Now other believers aren’t going to
make spiritual decisions for you. Other believers are not the key to your
spiritual growth and spiritual maturity. But there is a role that we are to
play in one another’s lives. That is critical to moving forward and to
supporting one another in our spiritual lives.
We’ll come back next time, take a
little more detailed look at these three commands. But these three commands all
come out of an understanding of the finished work of Christ and the superiority
of His priesthood today as opposed to the circumstances under the old covenant.
So let’s bow our heads in closing
prayer.