Hebrews Lesson 213
NKJ Psalm 119:11 Your word
I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
Okay, before we
get started we need to recognize that there are a couple things significant going
on in the Jewish community right now; and that is because the holiday season in
September really isn’t over. We had
Rabbi Haas, of course, come in and talk to us about Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur; but those were just the first part of the holy days. Following Yom Kippur (5 days after Yom
Kippur) which is approximately 2 weeks ago - 5 days after that began Sukkot
which is the Feast of Tabernacles.
Sometimes it’s also referred to as the Feast of Ingathering.
The Feast of
Tabernacles is described in Leviticus 23:33-43.
It was the third of the 3 major feast days on the ritual calendar of
Then that day is
followed by what began at sundown tonight, goes to sundown tomorrow night which
is a celebration referred to in Judaism as Simmkat Torah which has to do with
the joy of the Torah, the giving of the Law.
Now this is not a biblical - neither Shemini Atzeret nor Simmkat Torah
are biblically based holidays. They came
into Judaism in over time. Simmkat Torah
came in around the ninth or tenth century as a time to celebrate the giving of
the Law. In Judaism what they've done –
they focus on the reading of the Torah.
Many times they don't read the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures or are not
as familiar with them because the Torah is divided into 54 sections called
pashera (sp?). Each week they read one
of those sections so they're quite large.
At the end of the year which is now, they’ll read the last couple of
chapters in Deuteronomy and then the first couple of Genesis. This is a public reading the Scripture.
Of course that
was practiced in both the Old Testament period and in the New Testament
times. It’s referred to in several
passages in the book of Acts. But as it
is presently observed that is just a celebration (holiday) that comes in rather
late in history. So as you can see if
you are an observant Jew during the month of September you pretty much have a
lot of holidays; and you don't go to work very much. So it's a little difficult to get any
business done you might say.
Okay. Our study tonight is in Hebrews 12 which I'm
calling the preparation for the Bema.
That's the focal point in the last section of Hebrews 12:25-28 – Hebrews
12:25-28. This is really the warning
section. There is an exhortation or a
challenge in 12:1-24. This ends with a
short 4 verse warning to those to whom the writer is speaking. He's challenging them once again with the
dangers that come if you fall into what we would call carnality. If you fall into a lengthy period of
disobedience and rebellion against God if you just give up your Christianity
and decide to live according to some other religious system or if in their case
decide to go back to Judaism yielding to the pressure, the adversity, the
opposition that they encountered in some cases persecution that they
encountered or if you just decided to say, “Well the heck with it. I’m just going to live for myself and give up
following Scripture,” there are consequences.
There is a spiritual danger that we are warned about because not only
will that possibly entail divine discipline and punishment during this life;
but it also will lead to the loss of rewards at the Judgment Seat of
Christ.
The Judgment
Seat of Christ remember (We have studied this many times.) is described in 1
Corinthians 3. In 1 Corinthians 3
there's a description there of all of our works - good and bad. That is divine good versus human good all
piled up as if it were going to be burned.
The burning is indicative of purification. This begins in 1 Corinthians
3 beginning in verse 10. Paul uses the
analogy of being a builder. The
foundation is Christ; and our lives are made of the many different decisions
and many different activities. As it
were we are constructing something on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Some of the
materials that we use are the products of our flesh or sin nature, and it has
no value. It can be good or not. The issue here isn’t judgment of sin. The issue here is that there are things that
we build with that are not the product of the Holy Spirit. So they’re defined as wood, hay and
straw. Other building elements are
defined as gold, silver and precious stones or are described as gold, silver
and precious stones. That reflects the
fruit of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit in our life and the production of
the Spirit that produces something of enduring value – gold, silver and
precious stones.
So the Judgment
Seat of Christ there is this picture of the burning up of all of the building
materials so that that which has no enduring value is destroyed. The focal point is not on exposing what is
bad; but exposing what's left which is the gold, silver, and the precious
stones. A lot of people get all worried
about that, but the word that is used here in verse 13 that the fire will test
each man's work is a Greek word that indicates evaluation for the purpose of
showing what is good, not evaluation for the purpose of showing what is
bad.
So the fire as
it were (This is metaphorical.) burns up that which has no eternal value; and
then rewards are based on what survives, on what endures. That which endures is that which is produced
by God the Holy Spirit in our life. So
the warning comes here in verse 25 as the writer says:
NKJ Hebrews
Now that takes us back to the illustration he just used of
the two mountains - the
Their desire was that, “Lord, we don't want listen you. The voice scares us. Sent Moses up on the mountain and
explain. Give the Law to him.”
Now in Exodus this was depicted as not a bad thing. In fact God said that it was a good
thing. But what the writer of Hebrews is
focusing on when he paints it as a negative thing is the consequence. The consequence was in that rebellious
generation of the Exodus generation even though they've heard the voice of God,
even though they had seen all of the miracles leading up to the Exodus, even
though they saw and witnessed God deliver them again and again from enemies
during the 40 years in the wilderness, even though they saw God provide manna
for them every day. Their shoes didn't
wear out. Their clothes didn't wear out.
God protected and preserved them for those 40 years. Nevertheless they were disobedience and
rebellious again and again and again.
This is the same type of point that the writer of Hebrews
made back in Hebrew 3 when he warned the readers again - don't be like that
Exodus generation who because of disobedience and because they did not believe
God; they failed to enter into the rest - the rest being entering into the
Promised Land and God’s provision. So God
had to discipline them, and they never saw their reward of entering into the
Promised Land.
So here he warns them again.
NKJ Hebrews
“See to it.” He uses
the Greek imperative (the present active imperative) which indicates continuous
action in a person's life - that it's not just a one time decision; but that we
are to continuously be on guard that we not slip into extended carnality.
you
do not refuse Him who speaks.
Now God not only
spoke at Sinai, but He speaks again from the heavenly
He says, “See to
it that you do not refuse Him.”
That means to
say no or to reject what God says.
Then in the next
statement He says:
For
if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke
The verb there
for escape is simply the aorist form of ekfuego
meaning literally to escape, to escape judgment or escape the consequences of
their action. It's a first class
condition. The “if” should be understood
as “if and this is true.” They did not
escape. There were consequences. There were consequences in time and
consequences in eternity.
on
earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks
from heaven
That is from
So once again
this is building the results of the fact that we are in a superior relationship
to God based on the sacrifice of Christ.
Therefore more is expected of us and the consequences are even more certain.
So he draws this
contrast.
on
earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks
from heaven
Going on he says
describing the One who speaks from heaven:
NKJ Hebrews
That is at Sinai
– shook the earth.
but
now He has promised, saying,
See he goes back
in this contrast from Sinai and shaking the earth (physical manifestation) to
the present situation.
"Yet
once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."
This is speaking
of judgment that will come. This is what comes eventually. It’s just a broad term for judgment. There’s
judgment evaluation at the Bema Seat, at the Judgment Seat of Christ which
occurs for the believer immediately after the rapture.
We know from our
study of Revelation 4 and 5 that this occurs before the Tribulation
begins. By the time the Lamb goes to
receive the scroll which He opens which begins the Tribulation from a heavenly
perspective - before that happens the saints have already (the 24 elders there)
before the throne and there's a lengthy analysis of that in the Revelation
series that the 24 elders represent the resurrected, raptured and rewarded
Church Age believers. They have stephanos crowns on their heads which
are reward crowns as opposed to diadema
crowns which are crowns of royalty. So
the fact that they're wearing these stephanos
crowns, these aren’t angels. Angels don't receive rewards like that. There are
various other reasons within the text including to hymn that they sing saying
that they have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Well, angels aren’t redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb. So the 24 elders represent redeemed mankind. That can only be the church. So there's the Bema Seat that takes place at
that point. Then there's a judgment that
occurs after the tribulation, the judgment upon the surviving Jews, the
surviving Gentiles. Then of course we
have the Great White Throne Judgment that occurs at the end of the
So this is just
a broad general statement that judgment is coming. It's not being specific to any one
judgment. As we will see it’s applied
specifically here to warn Church Age believers.
So God says:
"Yet
once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."
NKJ Hebrews
Present tense
"Yet once more,"
This phrase “yet once more” indicates the removal of those
things that are being shaken.
indicates the removal of those
things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which
cannot be shaken may remain.
So you have things that won’t remain; and things that will
remain. Well that's the same thing that
we see depicted in 1 Corinthians 3. You
have gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and straw. The wood, hay and straw won't survive the
Judgment Seat of Christ. The gold,
silver, and precious stones – these are works that are done when we walk in the
Spirit when we are abiding in Christ, when we’re in fellowship the Holy Spirit
produces those works. That survives on
into eternity. So the things that are
being shaken (the things that are made that won’t remain) are the wood, hay and
straw. The things that will remain are
the gold, silver, and precious stones.
Now we see this same reference to the earthquake and the
shaking of the earth at Sinai described in Psalm 67:7-8. The psalms are rich with detail about what
happened at Sinai, details that aren’t included in the description in the
Exodus 19 and 20. It’s not there. God
didn't feel like it was necessary, didn’t believe it was necessary to reveal
everything at that point so we can find different references (different
descriptions) in the psalms that are fill in the gaps.
For example when I pointed out when we read through Exodus
19 that God descended in a dark cloud and there was thundering and there was
lightening. It didn’t mention rain, did
it? But we have rain mentioned here in
Psalm 67:7-8.
NKJ Psalm 68:7 O God,
when You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness,
Selah
NKJ Psalm 68:8 The earth
shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai
itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
So there were the dark clouds of thunder, the
lightning. There was also rain. The heavens poured down rain.
Now the application to us comes in verse 28 which says:
NKJ Hebrews
.
Remember part of
what endures is that which can’t be shaken.
We are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken.
let
us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear.
This is the
conclusion he draws having gone through everything in chapter 12 and the
application and warning.
He says:
NKJ Hebrews
This is the Messianic Kingdom. This is the
So therefore we are receiving the kingdom as believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ when we are raptured and rewarded. Part of our reward is that we are going to
serve God and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the administration of the
Now at the end
of this verse it says:
by
which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
By which - that
is by grace. It refers to grace
orientation, learning to live and walk by means of grace. That takes us back remember to the warning
that came in relationship to being weak in a race. The imagery that undergirds all of chapter 12
is the image of a race. We’re to run
with endurance the race to set before us by keeping our focus by looking into
Jesus' the author and completer of our faith.
NKJ Hebrews 12:2 looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
Now some who run
the race grow weary. They're tired. Their legs give out; their muscles give
out.
So the challenge
that's given to us in verse 12 was:
NKJ Hebrews
Don't give up. Don't
fade out of the race before you hit the finish line. Keep running.
So you need to strengthen the hands that hang down and the
feeble knees.
NKJ Hebrews
That’s a reference to sound doctrine.
And we are to pursue peace with all people. We studied that in terms of having peaceful
relationships as a mandate for all those in our periphery.
NKJ Hebrews
That's a special reward for maturing believers in the
NKJ Hebrews
I pointed out what that meant was that instead of dealing
with people in grace and forgiveness and pursuing peace; there are some that
just are going to hold a grudge, be involved in vengeance and a desire for some
kind of retribution in a wrong way motivated by selfishness instead of being
motivated by a desire to see righteousness done. Sometimes that should be our motivation.
Now when we’re looking at this verse we’re told, “Let us
have grace.” This is the same grace he's
talking about. We are to have grace dominate
all of the aspects of our relationships - forgiving one another as God for
Christ's sake has forgiven us, pursuing peace with all men. That is to characterize us. So grace orientation undergirds everything in
the spiritual life. It is on the basis
of grace that we serve God acceptably.
NKJ Hebrews
Then we have two interesting words are not common today -
reverence and godly fear. When you look
at these two words, these are words that usually reverberate with all of the
heavy trappings of years of religion and piety in Christianity. Their meaning gets lost. It’s like words like holiness. They are words that are used so much that we
lose or miss their significance.
The first word translates the Greek word eulabeia which refers fear or awe or
piety. It’s used 4 times in the New
Testament. It means someone who's
devout. That means someone who is
consistent in their pursuit of spiritual growth and someone who's God fearing,
somebody who recognizes the fear of the Lord.
In Proverbs the fear of the Lord is not just respect for God; but it's a certain sense of fear of
retribution.
Most of you probably love your father very much. But there were times when you did wrong and
there was a certain fear of retribution or punishment that would come in a
correct way from your father. That's the
idea here. We love and respected God,
but we know there are consequences to wrong decisions. So we serve God with reverence and with godly
fear.
Now that's a funny way to translate it; but it's somewhat
difficult word. It's only used one time
in the New Testament and that is the word deos
which means an emotion of profound respect or reverence for deity. So there's an overlap between these two
words. Together they respect a deep
profound respect for God, recognition that we live in the midst of the angelic
conflict and that the decisions we make and the actions that we take are in the
thoughts that we have. Everything is related to our spiritual destiny; and all
related to our future role as those who will reign in the body of Christ with
the Lord Jesus Christ during the
So because we are receiving this kingdom, because we're
thinking in terms of our future destiny which can’t be shaken (that won’t
disappear) we are to live on the basis of a grace mentality – a grace mentality
- which means we deal with people not in terms of the nasty scum bags that they
actually are (the fools, the idiots or whatever that cross our paths) but we
deal with them the same way God deals with us as obnoxious individuals who’ve
been disobedient to God. He deals with
us in grace and in kindness. We are to
let that govern everything in our lives.
We should be known as a kind and gracious people. We are to serve God
with this attitude of reverence and godly fear or this reverence and
respect.
Then that is explained.
NKJ Hebrews
That is a very good translation. It refers to for example – Deuteronomy
Now at this point the writer is going to shift gears into
giving some specific direction. There is
a series of commandments that are given verse 1 and verse 17 in the coming
chapter that are going to focus us specific areas of application. Now what's interesting is we haven't had the
writer of the Hebrews get this specific in terms of the application for 12
chapters. Now when we come to the end,
he's going to get down to specific application.
Now there’s an interesting application to his structure here that is
important for us to understand. We live
in a world today where we want immediate gratification. People want to go to church and they don’t
want to get all confused or have to think about theology and doctrine. They just want to go listen to a sermon where
basic questions are going to be asked.
I remember taking a class on church growth when I was in
seminary.
One of the things that the speaker (the professor) said was,
“You ought to have sermon series and sermon titles that answer questions. People are coming. They want to know how to have a happy
marriage, how to be successful in life.
They want to know how to avoid depression and destruction and how to
raise godly kids and all these questions.
So try to structure your sermons in terms of answering those kinds of
questions.”
Well, that just leads to and promotes the ongoing
superficial approach to the Christian life.
It actually promotes a self righteous approach to the Christian life
because when you remove the doctrinal foundation… Sometimes I’ve thought about doing something
like this and going through all of the epistles in the New Testament and
categorizing each chapter as to whether it was a doctrinal or teaching chapter
explaining how we are to think from the chapters that deal with
application. We would probably be
surprised to discover that our New Testament would shrink by about two-thirds
because about two-thirds of the New Testament I think has to do with
understanding what God has done for us at the cross and the implications of
that for our day-to-day life. But it is
understanding justification.
Look at Romans for just a second which we will start at some
time in the future when I finish up Hebrews.
We’re going to jump into Romans. When
we get into Romans we’ll discover the first 11 chapters of Romans (Romans has
15 chapters, maybe 16),,, The first 11 chapters all deal with what people today
would call heavy theology. Then it's
only the last four chapters or five chapters that focus on application; but
even the application section deals with a lot of what people today would call
doctrine.
The way I use doctrine is to include both because doctrine
teaches you not only what we might call the theoretical or thoughtful
undergirding of what we do; but also what we do. When we cut that down and you take away all
those doctrinal sections all you’re left with is nothing more than another
ethical list of do's and don'ts. The
Christian life is not based on ethics; it's based on walking by the
Spirit. Now it has ethics. It has do’s and don'ts; but the do’s and
don’ts are not the focal point. The
focal point is understanding who we are in Jesus Christ, what Jesus Christ has
provided for us, and how we walk by the Spirit because we can't do the do's and
don'ts if we’re not walking by the Spirit.
The Christian life is not a pull yourself up by your own boot straps
religious life. It's not the life based
on morality; it's a life based on a spiritual relationship with God the Holy
Spirit who produces in us this changed mentality and changed life style.
It’s not legalism.
Legalism is just trying to do it by means of the flesh. That was the whole problem with the Galatian
believers - is that the Judiazers had come in behind Paul and Barnabas. They were saying if you really want to
experience the spiritual life you have to obey the law - no discussion about
the role of God the Holy Spirit at all.
So once again it just reduces the Christian life to just morality.
That is what passes in most churches and most denominations
as the spiritual life. You just go out
there and quit doing this and start doing that and you’ll be spiritual. That is not what the Bible says. Anybody can morally reform their life. But to do it in the power of God the Holy
Spirit takes a relationship with the Spirit that is based on all of these
doctrinal sections within the Word of God understanding what Christ did for us
on the cross, understanding who we are in Christ in terms of baptism of the
Holy Spirit and our identification with Him and what that means in terms of
being free from the power of the sin nature and the role of God the Holy Spirit
and understanding all of that.
That's what Paul does in the first 8 chapters of Romans is
to make sure you understand it. He does
that in the first 3 chapters of Galatians.
He does it in the first 3 chapters of Ephesians. He does it in the first 5 chapters in
Galatians. He does it in the first
couple of chapters in Colossians. The
writer of Hebrews does it for 12 chapters before he gets down to those nice,
easy bullet principles - do this, don't do that that we find coming up in the
chapter. So you can’t understand the
insignificance and the role of the prohibitions and mandates in chapter 13 if
you don't lock it down in terms of the framework of grace and understanding the
training apparatus of the spiritual life for our future destiny in the
So when we start getting into chapter 13, we see that the first
commandment that is reiterated here is the command to let brotherly love
continue. It is a mandate that is given
even though it is addressed in the singular, it applies to every believer. It’s given in the singular because it's
applied to each individual.
The word for brother of brotherly love is the compound word
NKJ John
So if Jesus used agapao
there that we are to love in the agape
sense which is more of a mental attitude love than philos. Philos is a more intimate love. It’s not that they’re opposites or
they overlap. It's that philos is a subset of agape love. Agape
love can cover so a wide spectrum of love and philos love is a more intimate love – more of a friendship related
to it. So it’s a subset of agape
love. It's not one or the other. It's that philos
love is included within agape love;
but there is more to agape love.
So let’s just see how these words are used, and you might be
surprised at a couple things we discover in the New Testament. So one other thing I want to point out here
is a verb continue – the word continue - translates the verb meno.
Meno is the word gets used in
John 15 that we are to abide in Christ.
Just as the branch abides in the vine, so we are to abide in
Christ. It’s a term that is used many
times in 1 John as well that is akin to fellowship. It’s not always used that way but it's
primarily used that way in John 15 and in number later passages in John as well
as in 1 John. So whenever I see that
word, the first thing comes to my mind is this talking about fellowship. It’s
not talking about getting saved. So it's
a fellowship issue here that love is to characterize our ongoing relationship
with Christ. So, brotherly love is to
continue.
Let's look at some of the other places in the New Testament
where we have this word
In Romans 12:10, the first chapter in Romans that starts
dealing with application Paul says:
NKJ Romans
Now that's the New King James translation. I would switch it around because the first
word is
Have brotherly love toward one another with kind affection.
That is philastorge. It’s the only time this word is used in the
New Testament. Storge had to do with the kind of love of a stork.
I just thought about this now. I remember when we first went to
In the Greek you had eros
describing the sexual lust. You had agape. You had philos. You had storge and I think there were a couple
of other minor words that were also useful for love. This is the only time you have a form of storge used in the New Testament.
So brotherly love should be
So we’re to show brotherly love towards one another with
kind affection. This is then described
in a little more concrete sense.
in honor giving preference to
one another;
It's not me first.
We're not self absorbed. It is
always trying to help the other person – putting the other person first.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:9 we read (Paul says this just before
that well known rapture section.) - he says:
NKJ 1
Thessalonians 4:9 But concerning brotherly love
There's
you have no need that I should
write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God
To what?
to love one another;
Notice he uses
The classic example is from the gospels with the Samaritan
who comes along and he’s seen the Jewish traveler has been beaten up and
robbed. The Samaritan who is certainly
no friend of the Jews because they have such a prejudice toward them picks him up,
takes him home, takes care of him, gives him new clothes, nurses him back to
health, gives him food, gives him money and helps him on his way so that this
illustrates the kind of love we should have. It’s not just a love that avoids
negative sins; but a love that reaches out and that initiates and that is
positive.
So when we go back to that new commandment that Jesus gave
in John 13:34-35 that:
NKJ John
NKJ John
We see that in these passages specifically the 1 Thess 4:9
passage, there's a connection between agapao
love and
Then just to connect all the dots for you in John 13 here is
at the end of the Upper Room discourse as they’re getting ready to leave to go
Gethsemane in John 15 where we have the discourse on abiding in Him, He then
ties them together using both the word love (agape) as well as emphasizing obedience in the Word. It says:
NKJ John
There’s that word meno.
If you keep My commandments,
you will abide in My love
How do you stay in fellowship? By being obedient. If you’re disobedient,
you’re out of fellowship. You have to
confess your sins; and you’re back in fellowship.
If you keep My commandments,
you will abide
You'll stay in fellowship.
That's what he’s saying. You’ll
stay in fellowship.
you will abide in My love,
just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
NKJ John
When you’re out of fellowship you lose that joy.
and that your joy may
be full.
NKJ John
So here we have love related to staying in fellowship to
abiding in Christ.
Now one other passage to go to on this is in 1 Peter 1:22
and 2 Peter 1:7. In 1 Peter
NKJ 1 Peter
He uses a perfect participle here which indicates completed
action.
your souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit
So this because it is completed action probably alludes to
being set apart to God in Christ at the moment of salvation.
in sincere love of the
brethren,
Then he commands:
love one another fervently
The word translated fervently is the Greek word ektenos which indicates constantly or
continuously.
with a pure heart,
Katharos, a cleansed heart.
NKJ 1 John 1:9 If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
To what?
cleanse us.
Katharizo, the verb form.
from all unrighteousness
So this loving one another constantly only occurs when we’re
in fellowship, when we are cleansed from sin.
Then we have another use of it in 2 Peter 1:7.
NKJ 2 Peter 1:7
to
godliness brotherly kindness,
That’s
and to brotherly kindness
love.
There is a progression there starting about verse 5 of 2
Peter 1:5 going through various virtues and disciplines in the spiritual life
and the final one is His love (agape). So brotherly kindness (adelphia) is a part of the growth of the believer leading to love in
terms of love for one another the sign of being a believer.
So the first commandment there is that we are to let
brotherly love continue or to abide in brotherly love.
In verse 2 we get our first example of this.
NKJ Hebrews
13:2
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have
unwittingly entertained angels.
So now he's talking about hospitality to strangers - to
people we don't know. Here we see an illusion
back to an incident in the Old Testament in Genesis 18 when Abraham is near the
Oaks of Mamre down near
He says:
NKJ Hebrews
13:2
Do not forget to entertain strangers,
Or, to be hospitable toward strangers
for by so doing some
have unwittingly entertained angels.
Now this is one of those verses people take out of context
and say, “Well, somebody knocked on my door and I ought to invite them in (a
homeless person who is going to commit some kind of violent crime against me.)
…invite them into my house because they might be an angel.”
You only interpret it that way if you're ignorant of the
Bible. This is a historical reference to
the fact that when Abraham invited these three men in, one is the pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus Christ and the other two were angels that get sent on at the end of
the chapter to bring judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and to rescue Lot and
attempt to rescue his wife from Sodom.
So we're told:
NKJ Hebrews
13:2
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have
unwittingly entertained angels.
That happened in the Old Testament in Genesis 18. So the first example of brotherly love is to
be hospitable.
This is also required of pastors. In 1 Timothy 3:2, in Titus 1:8; Christian
leaders are commanded to be hospitable to others.
In verse 3 we have our second specific example of love for
one another.
NKJ Hebrews
13:3
Remember the prisoners as if chained with them -- those who are mistreated --
since you yourselves are in the body also.
Now this isn’t talking about - in terms of the immediate
context, it’s not talking about a prison ministry up at the prison up at
Now I don't know if you caught this on the news. You all
need to be really observant in the news these days because our beloved
President had one of his backyard town meetings this last week in
Somebody who was primed asked this question in the audience
– said, “Well Mr. President, why did you become a Christian?”
He did specifically state that he believed that Jesus died
and paid for his sins. He specifically
said that. But he also said that the
reason he became a Christian even though you didn't grow up in a church going
home was because he believed in the precepts of Jesus - number one that we are
to be our brother's keeper and number two the golden rule.
Well, for the biblically illiterate that sounds so religious
and so nice. Let’s just address the
first one being your brother's keeper.
Nowhere are we commanded to be our brother's keeper. That is a favorite verse from those who have
a socialist view of Christianity - that we are supposed to give everything away
to help the poor. And, if we don't do it
then get the government to make us do it.
That is just garbage. It has
nothing to do with Christianity. The
only place that phrase is used in the Bible is in Genesis 4 when Cain killed
Abel and God comes to Cain and says, “I can't find our brother. Where is he?”
“Who am I? My
brother’s keeper?”
It is a sarcastic retort to God to avoid answering the
question. It is not a mandate by
Jesus. It's in Genesis 4, the fourth
chapter the Bible. Jesus doesn’t come
around for 4,000 years. It’s not unique
to Christianity. I don’t know one person
who had two brain cells they connected to each other that became a Christian
based on that verse. It just doesn't
happen.
Second thing is the golden rule. There are various proverbial statements in
anything from the Code of Hammurabi which actually was written prior to the
Mosaic Law to Confucius to Buddhism to Shintoism - various forms of the
statement that people should put themselves in the place of other people and
treat people as they want to be treated.
This I think has its origin in revelation from God; and it
works its way out through the history of other religions as they sort of water
things down and change things and distort things. But it's not something that is unique to
Christianity. That's my point. I mean Jesus refers to it in Luke 10 in one
form; but that's really a comment on Leviticus 18:16 to love your neighbor as
yourself. So neither of these little
things that our President mentioned as being precepts of Jesus are really
precepts of Jesus. What it does is it
just shows his absolute abysmal ignorance of Christianity and the Bible – kind
of like when his Vice President was asked what his favorite book in the New
Testament was; and he said it was Job.
You know, politicians just need to keep their mouths
shut. I mean I don't care if they're
pagan. I don't care if they don’t know
anything about the Bible. But, don't
insult the intelligence of the Christians in the country by misquoting,
misrepresenting the Bible and just show
that you're stupid and ignorant about Christianity and religion. Or, maybe it's just their speech
writers. I don’t know.
But anyway the point here is to put yourself in the place of
these prisoners. How would you want them
treated? They’re not given good food in
a Roman prison or Jewish prison. So they
would take food to them. In some cases the leaders in local churches would be
able to bribe the guards to spend the night with their church members who were
in prison. They could take food to them
and they could help them and minister to their needs and bring some unleavened
bread and wine so they could have the Lord's Table and teach them and encourage
them up from the Word. So the second
thing we're to do is to remember the prisoners as if chained with them.
The third thing has to do with marriage, going back to the
second divine institution that of all the places that you're going to apply the
principle to love one another as the Lord loved you it ought to be in your
marriage. It ought to have to do -
especially husbands are commanded to love your wives, but wives also do love
their husbands. Marriage is honorable,
and the marriage bed should not be defiled.
There should not be sex outside of marriage either with a same sex
partner or other sex partner. Sex should
not be up conducted outside of marriage; and it should be restricted to
marriage which is between a man and woman biblically - not between Adam and
Steve or Eve and Susan. Okay, it is
between a man and woman and that any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage
comes under the classification of either fornication where there's no marriage
involved in either party or adultery which is where one or both of the parties
are married.
God will judge. This
is seen in a number of passages in the New Testament scriptures. For example in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and
Galatians 5:19-21 where those who continue in carnality will not enter (meaning
they will not inherit) in the
NKJ Hebrews
13:5 Let
your conduct
be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.
For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
This involves a marriage.
This involves in your life and ignoring the needs of those who are
imprisoned. This involves not being
covetous. This involves hospitality and
taking care of strangers. All of that would just be pure covetous or
selfishness which is the opposite of love.
NKJ Hebrews
13:5 Let
your conduct
be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.
For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
This is a quote from several or a summary of quotes from the
Old Testament - Genesis 28:15 where God promised Jacob:
NKJ Genesis
28:15 "Behold,
I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back
to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to
you."
This is a promise to Jacob as he is leaving to go north.
God said, “I will not leave you until I have done what I
have spoken to you.”
Again Moses reiterates this principle in Deuteronomy 31:6-8
that God would be with them and He would not leave or forsake them.
NKJ Deuteronomy
31:8 "And
the LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He
will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."
Again it’s reiterated to Joshua in Joshua 1:5.
So we have the conclusion to this opening section in verse
6.
NKJ Hebrews
13:6 So
we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What
can man do to me?"
This is the same word that’s used in Hebrew in the original
the same word that’s used of a wife. A
wife is to be an ezer. This is not a subordinate position because
the only other person in all of the scriptures who is defined as an ezer or helper is God.
So if you say, “Oh, this is so demeaning to women that they
are to be an assistant to men,” what you have said is for God to assist us is a
demeaning position. You have just
committed blasphemy.
So verse 6 says:
NKJ Hebrews
13:6 So
we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What
can man do to me?"
This comes from a couple passages in the Psalms.
NKJ Psalm 27:1 A Psalm of
David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The
LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
NKJ Psalm 118:6
The
LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Alright, this takes us up to verse 7 and we will continue
next time with the remainder of these applications, exhortations that the
writer of Hebrews gives between verse 7 and 17.
Let’s close in prayer.