Hebrews (Session 11) Chapter 10

well we're continuing our survey exploration of the epistle of the hebrews and we're in session 11 focusing on chapter 10 and uh as you know the first set for seven chapters was all about jesus at presenting him as the new and better deliverer better than moses better aaron and so forth after the priest after melchizedek then we're in the second session a better covenant a better sanctuary and a better sacrifice and we'll have finally going to wrap up the practical side of all of this but last time in chapter 9 we focused on the sanctuary that the sanctuary that is presently operative is in heaven with our high priest there in contrast to the levitical high priest who officiated in the temple on earth and this all been superseded is the point and chapter 9 really continues in chapter 10 that that theme will continue in our early part of chapter 10 tonight but then we're going to shift when we get to verse 18 of chapter 10 we're going to get into the beginning of what some people label as a the next major or third major section of the book the practical applications and interestingly enough it that section opens uh with a the fourth of five warnings and many people treat these five warnings as sort of interruptions of the sweep of the author and quite the contrary there really is key points as we begin to understand the meaning of the whole epistle so i want to highlight something else here remember that when we were in chapter 6 of hebrews that's well known as the major riddle in the new testament hebrews is considered one of the most difficult doctrinal studies in the in the entire new testament and hebrews 6 is probably the biggest problem within this epistle in the minds of many and we dwelt on that back there in six but there's another tough passage that comes becomes a close cousin of chapter six and that's a passage in chapter 10. so we're going to encounter the fourth of five warnings in this session tonight between these two passages between six and ten of course is chapter seven eight and nine which introduce and emphasize more than any other place in the bible the priestly work of jesus christ when we think of high priests we learn all about the high priest of the political system but we're here speaking of something that has superseded that and that priestly work of jesus christ avails for you and me and we're going to get into some very heavy apostasy verses and let's not lose sight as to why he christ ever liveth to make intercessions for you and me that whole buildup and key point was put there before we get to chapter 10 it's sort of a preparation if you will and i want to warn you in advance if you're worried about chapter 10 some verses chapter 10 the very fact you're worrying about it demonstrates you probably don't have nothing anything to worry about it's the people that aren't worrying about it that are the worry okay and you'll see what i mean as we get into this and uh i want you to remember i know i sound very repetitive here but you need to everybody that gets confused about the book gets confused because they forget to whom it was written it was written to christian believers these happen to come out of judaism yes they're jewish but the point is they're jewish believers throughout the epistle is let us let us let us the writer puts himself in the same category these are believers we're not talking about unbelievers in this picture okay need to understand that and he constantly demonstrates that christ fulfilled and set aside the things of the past he reviews all these things of the past to set them aside to put them behind us the sacrifices have been paid all the sacrifices on the altars and throughout the old testament were anticipatory examples or models or teaching illustrations of the ultimate sacrifice that was paid once and for all on the cross the rituals have all been fulfilled the old things were only emblematic if i can use that term pointing to the shedding of the blood of our lord and savior once and all for sin once you understand who he is and the blood that was shed it colors everything if you will let's jump into chapter 10 verse 1. for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things the having a shadow of the things good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year to continually make the comers there unto perfect first word for this ties to our previous chapter you could best probably teach this if we had time without a chapter break this is just continuing the theme from last time in chapter nine and so he's hammering still the cleaning up on the sacrifice issue here and this begins the explanation of what he'd been saying from chapter 9 verses 11 to 28 if you're keeping notes okay having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image there are two different greek words being used here for shadow the first one the shadow things means a pale shadow that in contrast to a sharp or distinct one it's a fuzzy glimpse it's not a sharp image in fact the other word means the icon which means a true representation which it's not in other words the law was having a shadow of good things to come but not the very image in other words it's an imperfect representation is what he's saying it can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers their unto perfect that's its problem making it perfect the law could only show us our need it could not repair that need the law couldn't make us perfect it set a standard we can't meet and so it shows us the need for a sacrifice in the first place that's why when the law was given the sacrifice were instituted because they knew they wouldn't keep the law so at least there was a remedy but not for all sin there were some sins that had no remedy and will come to those but the main point is the law was gave it gave us a hint of what's coming but it could never even with all the sacrifices that were done again and again year after year could make the comers to the sacrifice perfect or complete if the sacrifices could have made them perfect they would never have to be repeated right the very fact that they had to be repeated daily year after year etc it shows that they were intended to be a temporary teaching tool for the ultimate that they are pointing to he continues verse 2 for then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins in other words if your sins were really dealt with you could come away with a clean conscience no they were just covered if they could otherwise wouldn't they have been ceased to be offered the very repetition of the sacrifice shows their insufficiency and if they'd been sufficient they course wouldn't have to be repeated and it's interesting by the way that the tense of the greek in here shows that the levitical sacrifices were still continuing at the point he wrote this which means this was written prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 a.d so it's it's a a dating boundary if you will and but continuing but in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year so every year we're reminded they didn't work we're still imperfect we still have the sin hanging over us every year every yom kippur the yearly sacrifice they did this year after year after year and they still never accomplished the element there remained something the law and the sacrifice could never do that is make perfect which in the context of the book of hebrews means to bring to spiritual maturity the theme from this from first to the last verse is one primary thrust coming to spiritual maturity not to become a christian they're already christians the issue before each one of these verses and points and so forth is to bring the readers the listeners to spiritual maturity so if you're not a christian this has no meaning to you but if you're a christian it challenges you to take the next step i often ask an audience how many are saved and all the hands go up and i said good what have you done with it because he saved you for a purpose we tend to celebrate accepting christ as a victory celery you know someone's led to the lord that's not a home run it's first base deal the idea is to continue on to maturity and that's what this epistle is all about remember now we read in the new covenant it was back in jeremiah 31 but it was emphasized in chapter eight of hebrews a few chapters ago that under the new covenant god would remember their sins no more that's a once and for all deal not repeated every year okay then he continues to explain it is not possible that the blood of bows and goats could take away sins wow if you're jewish that's a blow you've got for you have centuries of these laborious offerings they didn't take away sins they covered sins pending the final sacrifice and as you see here the old testament sins were only covered not taken away the word is kaphar in the hebrew in the old testament that's a word for covering the same word that was used when noah was told to build his ark he was told to cover the ark with bittuman or atar or a pitch if you will to cover the word atonement uncovers the same word in the hebrew it means to cover doesn't don't do away with it it just temporarily patches it so to speak in noah's case the government was not taken away it was only covered by the the tar and so forth wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith sacrifice and offering thy woodest not but a body hast thou prepared me the animals did not offer their blood in perfect obedience and faith the animals didn't volunteer for the duty right they didn't well they didn't do it voluntarily it was necessary for the messiah to come and do it voluntarily there's this wherefore that's the reason the messiah had to come into the world by way of the incarnation all these sacrifices were just anticipatory where the creator himself would deign to be enter his creation become a man fulfill the requirement and go to his death to pay the price bizarre idea until we understand the whole picture now here the writer quotes psalm 40 verses 6 through 8 to make this point it's going to be laced all through the coming verses here so let's just take a look at it psalm 40 verses 6 through 8. and this is our style the scrolls imply old testament the little the other things that i just do to remind you we're going back in the old testament psalm 40 verse 6 8 sacrifice and offering thou it's not desire mine ears has thou opened i'll come back to that that doesn't mean what you think it means burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required then said i lo i come in the volume of the book it is written of me i delight to do thy will oh my god yea thy laws and with my heart who's speaking can't hear you geez good for you the volume of the book is written of me one of the discoveries you need to make personally is the discovery it's not something you do overnight something you do in a lifetime but discover that everything in the book is written of jesus christ all the little funny rules regulations subtleties even the encryptions hidden in the genealogies astonishing astonishing lo i said i come and the volume of book is written of me verse chapter 40 verse seven and this literally means that every page of the bible speaks of jesus christ on every page but there's another phrase in here that deserves a little comment especially because of where we live he says mine ears hast thou opened or pierced is what it really says what is he he's talking about a well-known procedure within that culture the for a bond slave if you were a slave paying off a debt let's assume that you were indentured for seven years to pay off a debt or something at the end of the seven years you're free to go you've done it you've finished your service but often in that period of time you became so devoted to the family that you chose to be adopted as a bond slave a doulos and this is what psalm 46 is alluding to mine ears has thou opened or pierced it really means digged mine ears have been digged if you will as referring to this concept by choice and so if you chose to be a bond slave they would take you to the doorpost of the house and pierce your ear to the doorpost with a shoe make like an oil like a ice pick a shoemaker's all and uh and and from that point on you probably wore an earring of pride because you were a slave that was you volunteered to spend the rest of your days serving that family you were proud of that you were this was a privilege that you asked for and they granted and the sound and so this is what we call a bond slave why is it so important because both john and paul speak of themselves as bond slaves of jesus christ meaning they're dedicated for the rest of their days to serve him now why is this so important to us well first of all the word all appears only twice in the bible and it has to do with this procedure but it's important to us nana and i anyway is that when we came to coeur d'alene coeur d'alene is a is a french label as most of you know the name of the tribe of indians here was named by the french canadian trappers because they regarded them as sharp traitors and so they named him the heart of the all they were sharp traitors was the idea their concept sort of a backhanded compliment but to us anybody with a biblical perspective the heart the coeur d'alene refers to the heart of the bond slave heart of the bond slave and that bar my hand is up right okay okay so uh that's it we're committed without reservation forever to our master and this is what's being alluded to in psalm 40 where mine ears have been digged and jesus says for for i said i lo i come jesus christ is talking here as you know from from that verse and that's exciting he's coming our master is coming we're in his service until then and that's something that we look to with great anticipation i want to pause and give you some hermeneutical insight hermeneutics being the study of interpretation most of the quotes in the new testament are from the greek translation of the old testament interestingly enough because that was the commonly used thing and it's interesting as you study these quotes in the new testament from the greek old testament you discover the authors in general attribute unqualified divine authority to the greek translation of the old testament that gives us comfort as we use that as a basis and sometimes they base their argument and testament on a single word in the septuagint give you one example i don't think it's the one i used here but there's others you can look up in your notes and that is the in isaiah 7 14 that he'd be born of a virgin in the hebrew the word is alma and some people say well that could mean something other than virgin no septuagint it's greek and it's clearly a virgin it's it's less ambiguous so the point is often the he the the this is to the the the septuagint is amplifying the septuagint was used by them as english as today and there's lots of examples of that and that was one of them i just gave you some variations attempt more accuracy than that sometimes they'll quote from the septuagint but they'll vary it to get make it more clear a little more precise a little more accurate there's examples in your notes i won't go through all here some some are paraphrased to highlight a specific application from the septuagint there are some quotes that summarize several passages they'll quote from several pages but they'll weave them together into a summary so we learn hermeneutically we understand interpretation from the way they interpreted the septuagint you're with me okay in some cases there's only an illusion and it's not intended to be a complete a complete translation you follow me it's it's just it's just a an example sometimes the holy spirit rewords the restatement as a human author might sometimes as a human author you might quote somebody but you might reword it to make it more clear you with me okay now i'm going to show you some interesting examples as we go through this little later let's let's summarize the sacrifice thing sacrifices started in eden the first intimation of the plan of redemption was when adam and eve put aprons of skins of jimmy of leaves and they were replaced by coats of skins by god himself why teaching them about the shedding of innocent blood they'd be covered and you say that's a pun yes exactly that's a deliberate connotative transfer to make a point and that's the the plan of redemption would involve um uh without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins the first example is cain and abel kane offered the fruits of a cursed ground and abel offered the ordained sacrifice of a lamb the fact that he was a shepherd and cain was a farmer confuses the picture to most people it's got nothing to do with it what this teaches us is that abel was following instructions cain was not he's doing it his way and so it was his sacrifice not his character that's at issue and that's going to be alluded to in the next chapter we'll come to that now before the law was given the head of the household was the family priest before the before exodus 20 the head of each household did the passover land passover not a levitical offering did you realize that passover was done in the passover long before those that was exodus 12. the law isn't given to lexis 20. during that interval it's the head of the house that's the priest of the family after the law is given the priests alone offered sacrifice because you were not allowed in the temple you were not allowed in the tabernacle you went to the gate and you offered what you ordered you gave it to him and he'd do it for you the priest did the offering again being instructional here christ is our high priest and is in several it is also our sacrifice he's our penal sacrifice emphasizing galatians 3 and second corinthians 5. he's our substitution it was voluntary it was redemptive it was propitiatory it was reconciling it was efficacious and it also revealed the whole situation and i won't go through all of this here but the notes they'll be in your notes so that you can dig through these at a time you want to make a careful study of how many ways jesus was our sacrifice and i'm indebted these are the kinds of notes you'll find in most study bibles like schofield and others that's where i crib this one but uh and by the way this is not the only passage that clearly implies that animal sacrifices were temporary or is it nor is it the only passage that emphasized the sacrifice were useless without faith that's through isaiah isaiah 1 jeremiah 6 hosea 6 amos 5. in other words here's at least four places in the old testament that says this very thing this is not a doctrinal contrivance of the writer it's fascinating to me to see that paul chose not to sign this epistle for a number of reasons we've reviewed but he bases his entire argument on texts that his readers accepted as foundational do you get the point what the points he's making are inferences you draw from the old testament not from some new testament revelation okay it was god's will to arrange the final sacrifices manner by preparing a body with which he could die into which he could die within which you could die for man so now by the way here's a sobering thought to go through a sacrifice today if all this is true is to trod underfoot the blood of jesus christ wow hebrews 9 verse 6 and burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin thou hast no pleasure he's contrasting what the annual sacrifice would not do with what the blood of jesus could do from verses 5 through 7 he's going to point out that god considered the once and for all acceptable sacrifice and that only sacrifice was that he comes through perfect obedience through faith in other words jesus sacrifice but applies to us through the obedience of faith and uh then said i lo i come in the volume book is written of me to do thy will this is a this of course is is recapping verse 7 of of psalm 40. verse 8 of hebrews 10 above when he said sacrifice an offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wood is not neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law and this what he's quoting here from is from psalm 40 verse 6. it's interesting to realize a third of the torah a third of the books of moses are spent discussing these offerings and sacrifices that were to be made and yet they no longer obtain and so the sacrifice of jesus was a voluntary sacrifice it came with obedience the old testament sacrifices are contrasted with obedience they were required by the law and the animals didn't volunteer you see the animals did not obey but jesus did and they did not go to the death as an act of personal obedience on their own that sounds funny to say but the point he's making is the contrast here and so these sacrifices didn't please god they were just his way of getting people to understand what was coming no obedience was involved in part of animals they were offered entirely on the basis of the law of moses and when the messiah god the son said to god the father lo i am come to do your will he stated that he was coming willingly and obedient to be what what was he coming for to be that final sacrifice that's again my my i try emphasis perhaps too often but uh mel gibson's book uh movie i should say the the passion that um has it is uh it has two deficiencies conspicuous ones one is he it implies that the crucifixion was a tragedy no it was an achievement jesus came to do that and to be the final sacrifice for sin and the second thing of course the book of the book he said that the movie fails to do is to present who jesus christ really is i'm not sure how he would have done that but the point is that's missing and that's the whole point of the whole thing actually anyway verse 9 then he said lo i come to do thy will oh god he taketh away the first that he may establish the second what's he taking it what's he doing away with the law the first covenant yes exactly right to establish the second again this is quoted from psalm 40 verse 8 and his death the sacrifice of the mosaic covenant were taken away and the second was brought in the one sacrifice upon which the new covenant is established that's where we get the new testament gets its name it's from this whole issue you take away the first that he may establish the second and again here is another clear statement there's something that's funny you can't get this across so many people as christians they get enamored with the old testament that's healthy that's good and they start studying the jewish feast days and try to understand what they all mean that's wonderful and and fruitful and and worth doing but it's interesting how often from all of that they start finding themselves trying to keep the torah getting back under the law and to do that means they don't understand the purpose and accomplishments of christ and it's disturbing to realize that to even consider that is to is a undoing of what christ came to undo or in other words okay double undoing there i'm not sure that's that's in the greek no i'm kidding okay verse 10 by the which we will be sanctified through the offering of the body of jesus christ once for all and essentially in the greek text the author uses a perfect participle with a finite verb what does that mean that emphasizes the believers are in a permanent continuous state of sanctification your justification is once and for all but you are then in a permanent state of sanctification some making more progress than others they've been made permanently holy in the sight of god that is declared justified okay it's his blood that saves them and sanctifies them why because the offering up of the body of jesus was once and for all that's why justification is once and for all for all of you it's past tense it's been done we'll talk more about sanctification and all this unfolds here every pre-stand daily ministering and offering sometimes oftentimes the same sacrifice which can never take away sins they do this daily every day every year etc this time the focus isn't on yom kippur once a year it's on the the daily ritual that they do off times the same sacrifice over and over every day year after year the emphasis of a writer here is on repetition that's one reason i haven't taken you down through a review of all the different offerings the whole point is they're all behind us they're all done and uh the the they stand there leave levitical priests stand day by day there's no place to sit as we saw in the tabernacle and that's that that standing means their unfinished state of their work they're never done the same sacrifice no matter how many times they're offered could never take away sins they can only cover it but this man jesus christ after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down at the right hand of god the levitical priest never sat down jesus sat down with the right hand of the father key point he offered one sacrifice jesus is the opposite of the levitical priests he's the one in contrast to the many of the biblical priests and by the way the greek word here is the errorist and emphasized it's once and for all offering in contrast to the repeated offerings of the even the grammar emphasize this his work jesus christ work is effective forever that means he didn't just die all the sins up to the cross he died all the sins in advance for all of them forever and because he's finished with his work he's now seated where on his throne in heaven right no good for you where is he seated by the right of the father but he's seated is the point that guy's making here he's no longer standing like vehicle he can sit down because his work is finished he's going to hammer that away through from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool see his present position is that he's now in heaven he's not that's where he is where's jesus right now we're going to visit israel we'll see the empty tomb is he there no he's in heaven now henceforth expecting that's waiting until all his enemies are made the footstool under his feet in the fulfillment of psalm 110 verse 1 remember the whole 110 thing we went over several times okay the reason jesus can sit and wait for his enemies to become his footstool is because his work is finished he's sitting and waiting for the right time the father will say go get him that's why i can kill his enemies make his footstool seven contrasts to give you a summary of the last four verses many priests in contrast to one priests they are standing he sat down they had to sacrifice daily but he sacrificed on one single day they sacrificed many times he sacrificed only once they had to offer many sacrifices but he had to offer only one sacrifice they accomplished a temporary atonement but he a permanent eternal one and their sacrifice only covered sins but his sacrifice actually took them away and some of these sounds like repetitions they're not really the precision of this analysis i'm indebted to arnold fruchtenbaum who else would be that picayune but he being a hebrew specialist i lean on him heavily for this in in in these areas very sharp very very sharp analog analysts for by one offering you have perfected forever them that are sanctified hath perfected forever that's a wonderful sound there's a verse that's good for showing the contrast between position and practice see earlier he dealt with the positional sanctification justification that is they're not perfect because of what they really are but because of what they are in christ if you have accepted christ your passport to heaven is stamped admitted there's a work still going on however called practical sanctification the holy spirit is within believers slowly conforming them to be more and more to the image of god because your justification doesn't change you it just allows you entrance to heaven when the time comes that's done he did it in the meantime you should be growing day by day inch by inch whatever towards spiritual maturity and that's what this epistle is really hammering about here there's another concept here that's worth mentioning in this whole justification thing that's the certificate of debt there's another model hinted here that i want to just touch on so we're not blind to this in the old ways in the roman empire and elsewhere there was an acknowledgment of debt for sin and the debt is not played by sacrifices each year as yom kippur are made for their sins but only extends the penalty for another year that's what yom kippur did there's another model hidden here and that's the certificate of debt and paul speaks of the handwriting ordinance that was against us or putting phrasing another way the certificate debt was against us we use the expression ourselves that he owes a debt to society when somebody creates a criminal act it's as if he owes a debt to society in those days they actually document you were in court and got deemed guilty you had a certificate debt that you had to have paid an actual document and it was it was a penal or legal or criminal term and we used the same terminology today the guy was dead what the jailer would do he would keep the certificate of debt and as you earned your sentence if you were a sentence for five years each year he would sign off a year to you the five years if along the way you escaped what was unpaid the jailer had to pay that gave him diligence he tried that's why that jailer remember when paul that was open he thought they'd all escaped he's ready to kill himself he said don't do that we're all here yeah that blew them away they didn't leave they were singing songs and the jailer came to christ you know the story next but okay now if the criminal escaped as i say the jail was then responsible when the if he's finished out his if the debt was finally paid it would be stamped or written to telesty it is finished paid in full his equivalent term and he would give that to you and you then had that as proof that you paid your debt to society that was their approach to avoiding double what we call double jeopardy today and so that's why paul speaks of our certificate of debt having been paid for us by christ why because the wages of sin is death christ's death paid for that and he did it in full on the cross his last words on the cross were telesty paid in full which in the king james of course is it's translated it is finished and so our paid and full debt is discussed here because that debt is acknowledged and rolled their debt in the analytical thing is rolled over each year ours is paid once and for all how precious that is so let's continue in verse 15 whereof the holy ghost also is a witness to us for after that he had said before this is the covenant that i will make with them after those days saith the lord i'll put my laws in their hearts and in their minds will i write them and their sins and iniquities will i remember how long no more he's a quoting if you recognize the quote it is from jeremiah the new covenant passage jeremiah 31 31 it's easy to remember 31 is the number of god in the hebrew right l jeremiah 31 31 is the is the new covenant verse just a way to remember that holy ghost is a witness to us and then 31 it's all the way from 31 through 34. now where the remission of these is there is no more offering for sin if you try to offer for sin you're put you're trotting the the the jesus christ this presents the conclusion of the entire discussion verse 18 ends this whole discussion we've been having since jesus brought perfection and brought complete forgiveness sin as far as god is concerned cannot even be remembered so it's great what what further need is there for levitical sacrifices they're over they're behind us they're done he's trying to tell his listeners to get out of that system or you're jeopardizing yourself before you're king and you're going to expose yourself to risk of life and limb as you'll see in a minute and so with that statement the author concludes the first major part of the book of hebrews so we've got that behind us so now we go from that part to the second part of this chapter which is from verse 18 to the end of the chapter but it includes a warning warning number four out of five so let's just jump in as we go here the practical application and the walk of believer the first major division author of hebrews was from chapter one through chapter 10 verse 18. that was all the theological stuff okay and he showed the superiority the preeminence of the sun to the three pillars of judaism moses angels the moses the levitical priests okay the second part of the book that we're now entering he's going to deal with the practical application of the preeminence of the sun and the walk of the believer and that will continue to the end of this of the book verse 19 of chapter 10 having therefore brethren boldness to enter in to the holiest by the blood of jesus well wait a minute who could enter the holy of holies only the high priest when on yom kippur after great ceremonial preparation do you have to understand the awe that they held that into it you couldn't even enter the tabernacle unless you're a levite you couldn't enter the the holy place unless you were a son of aaron and you couldn't enter the holy of holies unless you were the high priest and you could only do that on yom kippur you wait get the picture he's saying now because of all this that you've had brethren he's putting himself in that same category these are believers having therefore brethren boldness who to enter into the holiest holy of holies by the blood of the lord jesus is therefore connects it to the past of course the whole 10 chapter previous brethren he's putting himself in that their fellow believers have boldness to enter they now have the privilege into the holy of holies in heaven through a melchizedekan high priest not a levitical high priest different situation he's a king and a priest and jesus did not have the qualification to be a levite he was in the tribe of judah not leave a different deal here you and i are in the same plane of privilege as that of the old testament high priest wow that's bizarre now we go back and read those again more carefully i won't do it tonight you do it yourself having therefore brethren hold us to enter into the holy of holies by blood jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh a new way this is based on the new covenant and and by the way the word for new is a strange word prosphatos which literally means new in the sense of having just been slaughtered or freshly killed recent meaning recently made it's new in that sense you lose that in the english it shows up in the greek by a new and living way see he didn't die the high priest died and somebody replaced him and so forth no we have a living living way based on the living fellowship with a living person we have a living person there and having a high priest over the house of god let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of our faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water there's a double reference here that will be familiar if you understand your old testament now understand the sovereign power of this high priest over the house of god this is where he's more like melchizedek not like levi levi was just the servant and this guy is has sovereign power over the uh of this high priest he's a high priest after the order of my kids melchizedek was a king and a priest remember we went through all that in previous chapters this is the first of a series of lettuce phrases we're going to talk about that in a minute but let us paul's in the same category let us draw an ear that's a ritual term you can't serve god until you've learned to worship him you want to understand how to worship him i encourage you to study that carefully and my wife has several books that are very practical and helpful in that area if you want to get some insights there the greek is here the present imperative tense in other words continue drawing near would be a more precise translation and uh with what a true heart the word here in the greek means of real devotion to have sincerity without superficiality and i think that speaks that thus it speaks for itself having our hearts sprinkled that's an old testament idiom speaking of blood right this is levitical imagery the blood was sprinkled in that system and by the way the same word in the septuagint is used for the induction of a priest into his office he's sprinkled the sprinkling of blood is a form of authorizing and sanction and sanctifying it okay now the washed is a different concept this is also a levitical illusion to lure to bathe and this is referring to the cleansing as well of having been regenerated so you and i both need to be sprinkled that's a once and for all atonement blood of jesus christ we also need a daily bathing in the word of god that's the thought that's taken for granted behind this for for someone that's familiar with the old testament styling here okay and the same word here is used for the bathing of a priest consecration purposes and all so forth and and so he would be washed or bathed it was it was analogous in a sense to our ritual baptism in a sense the lettuce phrase there are three of these lettuce phrases in the following three verses of starting verse 19 that we should have the boldness standard of the holiest by the blood of jesus by new and living way in which he's consecrated for us through the veil that his when he says veil the flesh his flesh was torn and the veil was torn let us we now have a high priest that's over the house of god and we have these three letters these three letters phrases and they're not for those guys they're for us not let us you guys let us us guys if i can butcher the grammar here a little okay the writer is including himself here i want you also notice an other emphasis here i just want to get it clear it's going to be emphasized as we go further and that is the holy spirit's making clear that the believer should not be in isolation you don't do this on your own by yourself all the time you may do it there's a place for that you also get in a small group and one of the dangers of small groups they tend to be insular no you need to network between the groups we should not forsake the assembling together he's going to expressively command that shortly let us together not individually and there's three of these one to draw near in faith that's our relationship toward god let's draw near and hope that's for ourselves we can't live without hope and draw near in love and that's for others so it's our relationship let us toward god to ourselves and to others okay verse 23 let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised let's hope let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works let us consider awkward to perceive observe understand to consider attentively to make very careful investigation or careful study of what one another one another have you really studied your friends needs there's an invitation here for us to seriously investigate do a careful study consider attentively one another why to provoke unto love and good works the way to show love to the brethren is by doing good works for them talks cheap right not forsaking the assembly of ourselves here it is expressly often quoted verse very important understand not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching interesting emphasis here the quote this verse is often quoted forsake not the assembling of ourselves notice what the emphasis is when is this most important as you see the day approaching it shouldn't surprise us to see the real body of believers increasingly meeting in homes businessmen after breakfast on thursdays whatever finding small groups to get in the word of god we're finding them not they're they're they're not they're assembling themselves together and as they see a day approach it'll increase not forsaking that and as the day approaches it's the end times where we need to stick together abandoning our divisions over non-essentials and i love the quote that my wife has in her ministry lobby it's a quote from augustine that in in essentials in essentials unity in non-essentials liberty but in all things agape that's attributed to augustine but i think it makes it it's it's it says it all we're going to include that in our handbook next time is our we have our statement of faith but right let's say our philosophy approach i think we'll call it something like that as we see the day approaching all of us here i think are familiar with our study of strategic trends and we get a sense from that that we're getting in exciting times right now this is for the tape or two i'll re-emphasize one more time the most preposterous idea that i can imagine making publicly and if you believe what i tell you now you're going to flunk the course i want you to challenge this statement now i'm going to suggest to you that you and i are being plunged into a period of time about which the bible says more than does about any other period of time in human history including the time that jesus walked the shores of galilee or climbed the mountains of judea now to challenge that preposterous statement you've got to do two things you've got to find out what the bible says not what chuck mister says or whoever find out for yourself what the bible really says that's not hard to do it takes a little work yes second thing used to be hard is not today find out what's really going on and you won't do that on the 10 o'clock news you need to do a little homework and there are resources around that's one reason we have our proprietary database for all our students and all of that to be able to do that quickly and with penetration and with relevance but the more you know about what's going on and the more you know your bible the more you realize there's a convergence not of one thing of over a dozen that are converging on their near horizon i'm not setting dates i'm just saying it's still time there's still opportunities to improve your own report card before the king returns and so now the listeners of this epistle were approaching 70 a.d the judgment of jerusalem where the temple was destroyed because of what because the national rejection of their messiah jesus so identifies it in luke 19 at the trial entry he wept over jerusalem because you didn't recognize this thy day the day that was specifically anticipated to the very day by gabriel some five centuries earlier jesus warned them of its coming that's in luke 19. and it amplified in luke 21 he told him specifically that this generation would not pass and 38 years later the same period time of the generation in in the wilderness 38 years later on 70 a.d it was destroyed and over a million and a half men women and children were slaughtered by the romans in that dreadful siege the christians that followed jesus instruction had retreated by his instruction to pella over in and according to cebus the recording in the third century not one christian was killed out of that million and a half they were slaughtered because they followed instructions okay well now we're going to approach the end of chapter 10 but we're going to be dealing with the fourth of five of these warnings we've been talking about the intensity of each warning gets more serious this one is about willful sin it speaks of fiery judgment and sore punishment this is getting the language is getting tougher and tougher the reference here the context is the writer's allusion to end time events understand that what is what happen what's the next thing we're looking for the harpazzo the rapture as it's called right what's the next thing that happens after the rapture judgment seat of christ and that is really in the the forefront of what's in the mind of the writer here these subjects had been in his forefront from the beginning of this epistle all the way through and the author includes himself when he speaks of we in all of these things he says if if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins wow the naive reader out of context that sounds like you can lose your salvation that's not what the subject's all about four because of what he just said if you will he's anticipating the apostasy that was just warned of okay if we sin willfully that's a conditional circumstantial participle in the present tense it means a continuing action it's actually the is in front in the greek which is a way of making even more intense he's not dealing with one simple isolated act of sin but what he's talking about here is a specific sin that is habitually deliberately committed is the kind is the thought here he's abiding in that sin if you will it's not a sin committed out of ignorance or weakness it's a sin planned out determined and committed with forethought that's what the are greek together so far heavy stuff coming down hang on passenger seat belts the context of this is turning away from knowledge the specific sin he has in mind is the attempt of his readers to leave christianity and return to judaism that's a repudiation of christ's sacrifice if we sin willfully after that we've received the knowledge of the truth that is a very the word there is the readers already have the knowledge and the knowledge is epignosis which is precise and correct knowledge not just an approximation it's very precise that's an intensive in the greek a knowledge of the specific truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins see after the readers have read this letter they will have full knowledge of the truth that's why he's hammering the stuff away so thoroughly they'll have the truth the issues involved the circumstances involved and the results of their actions will be expressly nailed out here if they insist upon going back to judaism willfully after reading this letter it will demonstrate the enormity and severity of their defection wow that's called apostasy there'll be no more there's another if you if you disparage and put to naught the sacrifice of christ there's nothing that will be better or bigger or that will avail you're abandoning the one thing that's been done for you since jesus was rejected they have no other sacrifice threatens his was their final shot and uh there is you need to understand the old testament perspective here there are no sacrifices for certain sins all kinds of sins had all kinds of special sacrifice this had that one that said that one there's one group of sins that had no sacrifices for them adultery murder and blasphemy what was the penalty for that no sacrifice death death there was no sacrifice for that see there's no sacrifice it can avail if you reject the one that's been made for you see for these kinds of sins the people could not offer a sacrifice and let me i'll show you that in numbers 15. instead they were subject to the pain of we're talking physical death here we're not talking loss of salvation don't get confused here many people do numbers 15 starting verse 29 old testament torah numbers 2015 ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance both for him and that is born among the children of israel and for the stranger that adjourn so journalist among them but the soul that doeth ought presumptuously whether he be born in the land or a stranger the same reproaches the lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people because he hath despised the word of the lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him no sacrifice for those guys okay so when you compare verses 23 and 20 through 25 and verse 26 through 29 the sin that the guy is talking about here involves separately separating themselves from the others believers permanently they're going to go off back to judaism leave leave the believers they're going to do that at a huge cost to themselves and this as i say refers to the return of judaism the temple and all that entails why would they do that to escape the persecution they're experiencing because they become christians now what's even worse about this move on their part that their sin involves a denunciation of the three elements of verse 29 that includes the work of the son the work of the father and the work of the holy spirit all three are involved in those three things so it's a repudiation of the whole trinity and that's bad stuff for this kind of sin there's no further sacrifice the individual is therefore subject to judgment and it's physical not not spiritual the nature of the judgment in this context means three things it means physical death verse 28 29 apply that it means physical death in the 70 a.d judgment the people that did that were wiped out in the 70 a.d judgment so that was a fulfillment of that prophecy it also means spiritually the loss of rewards in the next life now there's a difference between loss of justification which you can't do and loss of your rewards which you can do okay and so there's the background is that for some sins there was no sacrifice and uh so for the believer all sins are forgivable for eternity but not all sins can be rectified in this life okay for if we sin here's a whole passage if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of 230 may have no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries fearful looking for judgment there's no extra sacrifices for apostasy and it's pretty heavy stuff here there will be a physical judgment of exactly that kind that came in 70 a.d when the city and the temple were both destroyed putting an end to the levitical system and the author goes on here he that despised moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses what kind of and with what kind of judgment was that man judge at the mouth of two or three witnesses death actually he was judged with physical death didn't lose his salvation or whatever it was physical death that was at issue a two three witnesses and all the three previous warnings so also in the fourth warning the issue is physical death now those who turn their backs on the one greater than moses will also suffer physical death in 70 a.d that's his point of how much sore judgment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who has tried to underfoot the son of god hath counted the blood of the covenant who and wherewith he was sanctified and unholy thing and done hath done despite unto the spirit of grace if these jewish believers go back to judaism it is rejection of the work of the trinity that's the point there's flagrant contempt for the word of god there's counting the blood of the covenant that's the father thing is unholy the assault of insolence against the holy spirit oh and it's interesting to see what peter talks about here ii peter 2 for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them boy bad news continue in hebrews for we know that you know him that hath said vengeance belongeth to me i will recompense saith the lord and again the lord shall judge his people and again it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god these are two quotes from deuteronomy by the writer they're not the same thing they're very similar but not quite the same thing god's character is that issue here vengeance is his sole prerogative nobody else's okay but he will judge his people two different points in these two things this is a quote from deuteronomy 32 verse 35 and a quote from the egyptian verse 36 but we learn some things the way this is quoted by the way there's some fingerprints here i have to share with you before we get to the substance of it these two quotes are from deuteronomy 32 35-36 verse 36 is quoted exactly from the hebrew okay however verse 35 is a strange one it's not quoted exactly from the hebrew nor from the greek septuagint not a big deal but curious this particular quote happens to be from neither the author is using his own rendering of the text now this is not a really big deal except that this occurs only in one other place in the bible and that's in romans 12 19. it's an idiosyncrasy of guess who paul i submit it as just another of these what i'll call a fingerprint the author of romans quotes the same as the writer of hebrews quotes it it's one of these suggestive evidences that's paul's fingerprint on the text because he has this particular way of rendering that particular verse he's the only one that does that it's the only place that this shows up so i think that's curious i couldn't pass it by let's go on i'm want to draw on a pivotal insight from second corinthians 5. and i got both of the front end back in verses here so you get the context wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all that mean most of us i think the word all means what it says right for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ in the greek called the bema seat and don't let people tell you that's just an a a place for athletic awards i've been taught so you hear that all over the place it's true that everything here is in the positive sense but the bema seat is the same seat the pilot judge christ agrippa it said it is a judgment seat this thing about making the bema is misunderstood the seat of christ now everyone before that judgment seat is saved that's not the issue but there are some serious issues here that everyone may receive the things done in his body christ's body no the believer's body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad who's he talking about you and me knowing therefore the terror of the lord we persuade men but we are made manifest under god and i trust also or made manifest in your consciousness and he goes on the point is we all are going to appear before the judgment seat of christ that this is the key verse second phrase 5 9. you want to make note of this and understand it and take it let's enter we're all looking forward to the harpaz of the rapture right what happens after the rapture you want to find out the details you can check nan's book but let me show you quickly what it is on the earth we've studied that again and again there's the world leader comes up there's the great tribulation there's the campaign of armageddon that's on the earth right what's going on in heaven at this time prior to all of this there's the rapture in heaven the first thing we're confronted with the judgment seat of christ the bema seed is sometimes called we have the marriage of the lamb and then we have him return to the earth to set up his kingdom the second coming in its proper term and he establishes the davidic kingdom fulfilling the davidic covenant on the earth that's the pattern diagrammed another way we have the interval of daniel 70 weeks that we're in now the last seven weeks to take off forthcoming prior to that week even starting the harpazzo or the rapture takes place there's by some distance it could be an hour it could be 30 years we have no idea it's not necessarily contemporaneous with the beginning of 73 many people make that mistake then in heaven we have a series of things we have the bema seat of christ and we have the marriage of the lamb right down on the earth we have the familiar abomination of desolation splitting that 70 week into two halves each half called three and a half years 42 months 12 months it's the most documented period of time in both the old new testament and it's of course climaxed by the great tribulation is the last half of that by the way it's not seven years three and a half years then we have the battle of the climate it builds up the battle of armageddon which is interrupted by the second coming of jesus christ when which he sets up his kingdom on the earth we have two mysterious periods of time otherwise there's a sheep of goat judgment and the marriage supper of the lamb and we have a strange 1290 days 335 days being in daniel 12 that everybody has speculations about we'll wait and see but we have the sheep and go judgments the more you study that the more more questions it raises but anyway marriage supper don't confuse that with the marriage of the lamb the two ones in heaven ones on the earth apparently and the great white throne climax at the end of the thousand years that's what ends it for everybody then there's a new heavens a new earth and we have this peculiar new jerusalem come down and hover the earth whatever all that's about so that's a quick perspective we'll talk more about that as we have time before we conclude the session the point is the bema seat is the judgment that's hanging over the readers of this epistle that's why paul has this strange verse in first corinthians 9 verse 27 paul says i keep my body and bring it unto subjectionless by any means when i have preached to others i myself should be a castaway you got to be kidding paul lived his life in paranoia was he afraid of losing his salvation absolutely not he wrote the book on eternal security that's not what he's sweating what does he mean i myself he's fearful that he might lose his inheritance okay peter has a similar thing for the time is coming the judgment must begin at the house of god and if at first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of god for if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear that's a good question for the unbeliever i want to also point out to you another thing that relates to all of this matthew 25 deals with this with the parable of the 10 talents i won't go through the whole thing you all know that the guy that had 10 got 10 more the guy that had five got five more and then he gets the god they just had one he said the lord answered it said unto him thou wicked and slothy servant thou knewest that i reap where i sowed not and gather where i have not strawed what the guy did was just hide it safely so it wouldn't get lost and returns it and he gets he that was a losing strategy thou artist therefore to put my money to the exchangers and then at my coming i should have received mine own with usury or interest take therefore the talent from him and give it to him which hath ten talents so this guy didn't cut it very well look what happens but everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath doesn't make much sense until you study this parable carefully and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth and there's many of us that have presumed over the many years that this this is talking about being cast into hell this term outer darkness has been exegeted so provocatively by j.h ladd um jody uh dillo and uh erwin lutzer uh charles stanley and others i was i like many were very resistant at first my wife's diligence and chasing down the background here has convinced me that the other the the surprising view is the correct one this is not talking about hell this is a saved person that's losing his inheritance the word is that actually in the greek means the darkness outside and unfaithful servants are saved by grace but are not positively rewarded for their unfaithfulness those in the darkness outside have lost the reward of inheritance in the millennial kingdom to presume that this refers to hades is an illegitimate connotative transfer and we'll deal with this in the final chapters i think we're going to finish uh hebrews enough to do a recap and get into this in more depth but i want to highlight that right here all through this epistle it presumes an understanding of what we're dealing with here but the main writers here are dillo ladd lutzer and a.e wilson and charles stanley and others but if you want to find out about this i encourage you to take a look at man's new book called the kingdom the power and the glory because it deals with this thoroughly and it doesn't just deal with the exegesis and the exposition it deals with the practical what do you do so what do you do about all this personally let's move on hebrews 10 32 but call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great flight of afflictions partly whilst you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly while she became companions of them that were so used he's complimenting his readers because among his readers are people that showed some class in the early part of their work you want to call it remembrance the former days in the which after ye were eliminated ye endured a great flight of the fictions called remembrance former days and uh the first deterrent to apostasy is to remember one's early days in the faith you've got somebody considering apostasy remind them of what it was like in their early days who is real they'll remember while you were made a gazing stock the word in the greek is the word from which we get the term theater by the way okay theatrical gazing stock here you're made you were made of gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions and the word afflictions implies persecutions and it implies in the greek the loss of property this wasn't casual insults this was serious persecution these people had endured so it's understandable why they're looking at the possibility of enough of all this i'm going back to judaism and not only that partly while she became companions of them that were so used so okay for ye had compassion of me and my bonds again it sounds like paul doesn't it and look joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance the word compassion there is uh sympatheo the word sympathy what comes from it but the word in the greek is actually much deeper a deep inner agony that he's talking about okay cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward for you have need of patience that after ye have done the will of god you might receive the promise see the issue here is not salvation it's reward all the way through spiritual maturity and uh has nothing to do with salvation finishing well is the name of the game for yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry you know it's quite conceivable that the writer here was confronting the same problem of delay of the second coming second advent which paul himself had also encountered in thessalonica that's why he wrote the first and second letters of thessalonica same kind of growing concern now the just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him wow does that phrase sound familiar yes it's the key word to a trilogy okay the just shall live babe that's a quote from habakkuk 2 4 and who are the just that's what the book of romans answers and it quotes this in romans verse chapter 1 verse 17. the just shall live how that's what galatians deals with and this is thus quoted in galatians 3 11 how shall they live by faith and that's quoted here in hebrews 10 37 but in chapter 10 39 it's going to set the stage for going into the rest of this for we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul patient endurance so it's not to lose their crowns at the judgment seat again there's nothing in these warnings that talks about salvation they'd lose their physical lives if they mess up here and their rewards but not their salvation in luke 9 62 we're reminded by jesus says no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god when you come to christ don't look back keep back keep going forward john 17 12 jesus himself speaking to the father he says while i was with them in the world i kept them in thy name father those that thou gavest me i have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled so if you can lose your salvation god lose something even more it's a good name okay i love john i love to conclude this so you don't have any doubts about security john 10 28 29 jesus i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father which gave to me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck him out of my father's hand there are two hands involved and i love to to paraphrase walter martin if you're going to lose your salvation i've got a new name for god butterfingers okay we're in the last session the hall of faith chapter 11 of hebrews one most famous chapters in the entire bible often called the hall of faith and it's going to climax the trilogy on habit 2 4. the just shall live by faith the just was romans they shall live by galatians but by faith is of course hebrews and the hebrews passage is pointing to the next chapter which is your assignment for next time let's stand for a closing word of prayer

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020