Hebrews (Session 2) Chapter 1:4-14

okay we're in the epistle of the hebrews but before i go on i have a challenge for you a question i'd like to ask sort of a quiz question what bible study was given 12 different times by seven different people and always yielded incredible fruit and is rarely given today what bible study was given by seven different people in 12 different occasions in just one book of the bible and is always recorded as bringing results and we don't ever bother doing it today hardly ever what's the answer presenting jesus christ entirely from the old testament how many of you could go to a jewish friend and using the tanakh the old testament present them jesus christ interestingly enough there's many ways to do that by the way it takes a little preparation a little outline whatever but that's what the epistle to hebrews is all about you're going to be stunned to discover the tour de force on christology that is put together here by the writer drawing 100 from the old testament has seven different quotes just the first chapter and that's just getting warmed up so epistle the hebrews maturity force in christology and also about another topic that we're never taught about our inheritance as believers a lot of confusion on this topic your salvation can't be lost because jesus paid 100 of it we we nailed that down in our study of romans paul wrote the book on eternal security and yet paul could be just apprehensive about his life he was fearful he's almost a paranoid that he might be a castaway loses salvation no no afraid of losing his inheritance in the old testament and the new testament inheritance can be lost and we have a risk of forfeiting ours this study is going to challenge our soteriology that's the fancy theological word for salvation many people are confused about their salvation and that's what leads to all the confusion about the book of hebrews among other passages we're also it's also going to challenge our eschatology many people like to study end time prophecy and yet probably could not pass a preliminary test on the kingdom the millennium many people study armageddon and ezekiel 38 and whatever and have no idea what's going on during the tribulation on what's going on up there what's the first thing that happens after the harpazzo the rapture judgment seat of christ oh well that's where we have the body of christ and the right of christ are they the same thing are they different i don't know these are neglected topics and so it's going to challenge our soteriology and eschatology and i want to say right up front we embrace here two things a very high view of inspiration our hermeneutics requires taking god seriously and respecting the precision of the statements the need for precision that's why a paraphrase throw it out the window it's fine for maybe casual reading no you're going to study study as close you can to the original that means a good translation with footnotes or better yet a computer software that'll take you to keyboard greek whether you know hebrew or greek you don't need to i mean take care of that that's one of the two things high inspiration the second thing is what we call a heuristic method our goal is not to convince you of the doctrines we happen to hold our goal is to get you equipped and tooled to find out for yourself there is a landmark article in the recent christianity today about willow creek most of you that follow the field of ecclesiology know that there's a couple of churches that have really influenced the modern church in america saddleback with rick warren and all of that there's one that's even bigger and that's willow creek bill hybels they're the ones that have promoted the seeker friendly move spending millions of dollars on displays and play all kinds of things it's it's a it's a real uh everybody that's serious about pastoring a big church goes to willow creek to see how they do it they've just published the results of a huge expensive detailed analysis of results they spent a lot of money and it's to their credit that they have published their astonishing conclusions the title of the article is we made a mistake they admit that all that money misspent in effect because it didn't produce any real results and they've come to the conclusion that what they should have been doing instead of all of that for some years now is raising self-feeding christians and teaching the word of god in a way that would cause them to feed themselves and emphasize basic spiritual disciplines prayer and such back to basics that's an astonishing article because it's not written by a critic it's written by they themselves having spent a lot of money to come to those conclusions it's also i think one that a lot of churches are going to be taking to heart and reevaluating what they're doing and we of course are then challenged too not to continue doing exactly what we've been doing but also to find ways to be more effective at partnering with churches we're not anti-church we're just focused on the basics learning the bible understanding the times and then putting it to practice whatever god has called you to do so anyway that's that's where we are with the book of hebrews and by the way the other thing that surprised me to realize and it's influencing this rendering of hebrews i published a commentary in hebrews in the past that really didn't hit the main mark because i didn't fully appreciate the prophecies on the millennium in this book there's more prophecy about the millennium of jesus christ than any other period of time in the bible the connection that i missed during my 60 years of studying the bible i didn't appreciate the fact that the millennium is the fulfillment of the davidic covenant the davidic covenant is an unconditional covenant and it's the key to understanding the whole program of god and so we're going to get into all of that in this thing hebrews the epistle to hebrews called the riddle of the new testament the authorship is regarded by most commentators as anonymous because it wasn't signed was it written by paul or apollos or barnabas those are common conjectures the author had a vast knowledge of the old testament he was clearly a hellenistic jew writing to jewish believers important point who were under much persecution that's clear from the context by the way something else about the author that's missed by many of the readers many you said commentators the readers knew who he was there's indication of the structure of the sense or they knew who he was he didn't sign it for some very good reasons and now some of the issues that come up of course is the nature of five warnings that are in the book and to whom it's written what are those five warnings that's what confused several of them really confuse people we're going to hit those as we go they're not incidental some commentators notice them but they sort of think they're a change of change of topic no they're very consistent with the central theme of the book we need to understand to whom the book was written and we'll be hammering this all the way through because there are people that don't understand this book was written to people who were saved this was written to believers but it's going to focus on the dangers of not persevering in your faith okay and one of the things we try to nail down right up early you can't go at this exercise if you have any doubts about eternal security and in your notes if you haven't done it before put john 10 verse 28 and 29 jesus says all the father give me will come to me and whosoever cometh to me i will no wise cast out no one can take him out of my hand no one can take him out of my father's hand my father is greater than all no one came by there are two hands involved in john 17 jesus commits the faithfulness of his followers to the father that's why paul can say i know in whom i believe in that he is able to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day and i i usually like to work in the water what i attribute that i uh a remark i attribute to walter martin if you can lose your salvation i have a new name for god butterfingers because jesus did it all and there's plenty of scripture that emphasizes that's 100 percent his completed work to tell us die it is finished it is complete well what's the issue then well we'll get into all of that as we get into what we paul there are many style reasons the more you study style the more it convinces you it's paul i'm amused by some of these people styles not paul's go back and read last i won't go through all this this time we did that in last session peter by the way in his letter virtually calls that makes this fact and peter says in his letter account that long-suffering of our lord of salvation even as a beloved brother paul according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you unto whom the readers of peter's letter who are the readers to peter's letter the hebrews both his letters written to his hebrew followers that was hebrews first peter 1 and and 1 1 and second peter 3 1. as all as in all his epistles speaking in them of these things in which some of some things are hard to be understood that's peter commenting on paul's writing he's kind of hard to understand at times he says he probably means that in general or he might be referring to hebrews 6 we'll get to that later which they that are are unlearned and unstable rest so if you're resting with that you're having trouble with it that's apparently according to peter you're unlearned or unstable in any case as they do also the other scriptures wait a minute what a surprising statement that comes from none other than peter himself he calls paul's writing scriptures you understand that these letters that were circulating in the early church were circulated as and regarded as scripture they had the septuagint the greek translation of the old testament and these various letters that they regarded as scripture peter here records it now if the book of hebrews is not paul's letter then we got a bigger problem because then the letter paul wrote to the hebrews is lost and there are theologians that say that that's impossible because god protected his canon so i won't go down that stream but all scripture is given by the inspiration of god no just the gospels no just the torah no no no no all scripture is given by inspiration of god that term is a translation of a greek term which means god breathed god breathed let's take that straight let's take that seriously and it's profitable for his doctrine for reproof for her correction for instruction what does all that mean for doctrine what's right for reproof what's not right for correction how to get it right and for instruction how to stay right i hope that helps these highfluting words a little bit okay peter goes on his passage there he says something else ye therefore beloved seeing you know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness is that clouding our eternal security no it means you can fall doesn't mean you lose your salvation but you can fall what does that mean that what does that mean what does that mean fall from what to where to hell no that's what christ has protected you from we're going to answer that as we unfold this fascinating epistle paul also includes in this epistle a secret mark did you know that not really a secret but it's a secret because a lot of scholars don't know it and that makes it a secret i guess would understand that there were many forgeries floating around the thessalonian letters being an example several once you understand there were forgeries that they were dealing with some passages will make more sense at the end of the thessalonians the second thessalonian letter was written in a response to an apparent forgery that was being circulated paul's heading up he's upset about that and so he signs it with a large hand it was written by a secretary but he signs it himself with a large hand and he puts in a personal token something that they would recognize is his little fingerprint the other thessalonians there says the the salutation of paul with my own hand which is a token of every epistle so i write noticing you sign his own hand and so forth but it also includes something else the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all amen you that sounds so familiar to you that you probably don't recognize that nobody else used it paul alone does this that was a signature token you can find it all in every one of his letters he uses that as his little fingerprint the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all how does the book of hebrews end grace be with you all amen well some of you say well chuck you're making a big thing out of nothing well maybe what's so impressive about this because the word grace does not even appear in any other epistle with one exception there's one place where peter uses it but not in salutation so that tells me that i i regard that as significant and we can go through in the roma love of christ in romans 8 paul list 7 and then 10 things more in hebrews there are seven things and ten more in galatians we've a list of 17 things these are stylistic issues they don't prove anything but they do suggest that romans hebrews and galatians written by the same guy i got a stronger point to make in a minute here there's a the word in the reformation was the just shall live by faith a quote from habakkuk 2 4 and romans answers the question who are the just galatians answers who shall how shall they live and hebrews answers by faith all three epistles quote habakkuk 2 4 and are a trilogy on that little phrase tell me what i mean by that the just shall live by faith who are the just romans answers that and quotes it in romans 1 17. they shall live how that's what galatians explains not by the law but by grace and uh how shall they live hebrews by faith romans hebrews 10 39 the verse or two before the famous chapter 11 the hall of faith so the point is what this implies to me is that it implies that some single author wrote all three and we know who wrote the other two that was paul and the reader to hebrews knew who the author was we'll tell we'll sense that as we go through it so 2 4 is the cornerstone it became the battle cry of the reformation well what's the author's method i'll sometimes be you know academic and call it the writer or the author but i want to right up front be admit to you i'm convinced doesn't mean i'm right but i'm convinced it was paul so you'll find me slip and say paul said this and paul said that so bear me bear with me on that he's going his method is to attack so to speak the three main pillars of judaism these are jewish believers he's talking to and they got a problem they're using divinely appointed rituals by divine divinely appointed priests in a divinely appointed place the temple this was written while the temple was still standing it was that strange interval that paul's last last imprisonment apparently and the fall and the fall of jesus in 78d so we can zero it in there but the method the author's method is to show that christ is superior to the three primary pillars of judaism angels moses and the political priesthood those aren't the only ones but they're the big ones and he's going to deviate from the logic of his argument apparently to include five warnings and we'll learn a lot by studying those five warnings they're written to believers they do not represent any chance of loss to the past aspect of salvation justification they're already justified that can't be changed so they have eternal security the warnings admonish the believers to press on and obtain all that god has promised to the faithful overcomer that's what it's about it's about rewards as we might say the warnings represent very real possibility of the loss of privilege or rewards offered to the believer which will be revealed at the judgment seat of christ that's the issue that's not a little technicality that's not a footnote that is our primary occupation you and i here today i'm assuming you accepted christ your believer here not see me afterwards we'll fix that try to no i'm assuming how many are saved by jesus christ praise god how many of you are in the full-time minister here gonna see a show of hands let me ask that question again how many of you are saved by the blood of jesus christ okay how many of you in the full-time ministry with you know it or not all right why you say you're saved what have you done with it that's what your king is going to ask you in effect what have you done with it what's he called you to do not necessarily be a pastor there are lots of ministries you get the great discovery in life to find out what god has called you to and your gift that you're anyway we'll get on that five warnings one's hebrews chapter two first five verses hebrews 3 through 4 hebrews 6 that's the big one that has 16 different interpretations of hebrew six we'll focus on the three main ones and i think when you're through you'll be very comfortable understanding it before we're through but we'll do that by getting there carefully hebrews 10 hebrews 12 these are the five warnings that we're going to deal with as we go through this tour de force in christology all five warnings are a unit they go together and complement each other each one builds upon the previous one each one intensifies until the fifth one which is a capstone the writer relies heavily all the way through on israel's exodus as an example a type remember romans 15 4 whatsoever things are written before time were written for our learning so that we through the patient comfort of the scriptures might have hope whatsoever things are written the book of numbers is a guidebook for us in part because we want to understand how israel blew it over a million were saved out of egypt and only two inherited what's the lesson there we'd better pay attention and uh the redeemed people failed to heed god's instruction and was judged for disobedience so why because god in his love and mercy saw fit to move the author of hebrews to warn his readers and by the way that's us god's purpose here is to warn us of what we might miss out on my wife always kids me when i'm at the dinner table the dog's watching me eat and i often talk to the dog boy are you missing out this is good stuff you know anyway the author loved the recipients enough to warn them of impending danger paul loved the jews he wished he'd been called to the jews he was called to the gentiles peter took the jews he took gentiles that was the the division but every time he spoke to the hebrews there was a riot the romans had arrested him to save his life so he wrote this letter he didn't put he didn't write apostolically he wrote quoting their authorities the old testament at every step of the way he doesn't sign it because that would just add prejudice against it they knew who he was you'll find that out as you read the letter but that would prejudice it and by the way god wanted future readers also to understand the danger that accompanies apostasy apostasy doesn't have to be vigorous rejection of the faith apostasy can be indifference if you've been say if you've been saved and regarded casually that's a form of apostasy believe it or not the original recipients of the letter were christians each warning will substantiate that fact the correct interpretation of the entire book hangs on one question were the people addressed believers or unbelievers were they saved unsaved or half saved be facetious a little bit that's the question you need to answer for yourself and by the way two dozen times the writer includes himself in the warnings and admonitions paul includes himself you'll find the word we in some very key places and the question you have to answer yourself when you get to hebrews 10 does god urge an unconverted half-saved professor to hold fast to his false profession i don't think so but that alone nails it for you what's at stake here you've spent an evening here what are these believers going to lose forfeit or suffer what's at stake here not salvation we go through a whole annex here of john 10 and romans 8 and you know you know the passages you know what what's that issue here are rewards at the judgment seat of christ that's the issue we don't talk much about that churches generally don't preach much about that we cannot escape by applying this to other people you can't escape this by assuming it really means somebody else the burden of the epistle to hebrews is not the rescuing of sinners from hell that's not what it's about it's about bringing the sons to glory the completion of your sanctification we're going to see a composite porter of christ chapter 1 emphasizes the coming rule of christ and it's a millennial thing it begins and centers on the coming glory of christ in the old testament scriptures you're going to find in this chapter alone there are seven quotations from the septuagint that's the greek translation of the old testament that became the believer's bible in those days even though they were jewish the kingdom is the grand central theme not of the book of hebrews of all scripture you know wow that's kind of quiet so you must go you're going to go now you're going to go to romans 20. revelation 20 no no i'm not i'm going to first corinthians 15 which paul would say is the most important chapter in the bible because if you don't have 15 you don't have nothing you don't have anything paul would say that but virtue says that without the resurrection of christ it's all for nothing so in that resurrection chapter let's pick it up about verse 20. but now as christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept for since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in adam all die even so in christ shall all be made alive but every man in his own order christ the first fruits and afterward they that are christ that is coming so far so good familiar right then cometh the end when he christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to god he's not talking about the kingdom of god he's taught the king of heaven from god kingdom from heaven delivered up the kingdom to god even the father when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death and he continues for he hath put all things under his feet and paul adds sort of a parenthesis here but when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is accepted which did put all things under him and when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the son himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that god may be what all in all that's the goal that's what christ is about it ain't there yet it won't be there until after the millennium that's part of what it's all about understand that the kingdom is the grand central theme of all scripture we we could do that several ways i chose it that way what makes this so confusing is most churches deny the idea of the kingdom they're a millennial they've chosen to allegorize that and in so doing they missed the point millennialism is not a peripheral issue i have for 60 years argued as walter martin used to argue too is that eschatology's peripheral theology good christians can have different views about the end times that's certainly true there is a why in the road the first why you come to in eschatology is are you premillennial or millennial and there are a number of people on my staff they're a little uncomfortable because i hit this so hard but i'm the more i study the more i'm convinced we should be hitting it hard because to be a millennial requires you to call god a liar that's different than having a little different view about the timing of ezekiel 38 or something that's fundamental in fact by being a millennial you blind yourself from the kingdom perspectives and that's the trouble with the church today they have no grasp of the kingdom they have no grasp of the judgment seat really being real they have no grasp of what heaven's really all about it's all in the scripture we're not making this up it's there check it out for yourself there's more prophecy about the millennium than any other period of time in the his it's the fulfillment of the davidic covenant and we'll be talking more about that next time and about our inheritance not our justification it's our inheritance this view and that will be a result of our faithfulness and obedience you can earn your salvation don't misunderstand me but you can qualify for the inheritance god has for you by trusting him by believing him jesus has three offices and we're going to understand those better from this epistle than any other passage in the entire bible the very first three verses of this book of this epistle christ's prophetic office his kingly office and his priestly office prophet priest and king all three so the first seven chapters presents jesus the new and better deliverer of over contrasting with judaism the god man better than angels better than moses better than joshua better than there those are covered by the first four chapters in chapters eight nine are going to talk about calvary and the priesthood of christ better promises better sanctuary better sacrifice has far better results and he's going to hit that and then the last part of the book will be what do we do about it the doing of it all but we're in chapter one and last time we did just three verses to get a flavor of it and i'm not going to redo all that but we certainly will summarize it in those first three verses the writer establishes that jesus christ is the heir of all things that through the son all ages and by the way that's not worlds it's time domains is what the greek term really means we're made he is the brightness of god's glory he's the image of the father he upholds all things by his power he's holding it together still we talked about that all last time and he made pure he he made the purification of sin and he sat down the uh majesty on high the only term that only place that appears in the entire bible that was the first that was just for three verses by the way okay now we're going to talk about him being superior to the angels the last the next the next 10 verses that finish this chapter are going to focus on his deity but specifically in the context that he christ is superior to the angels that may sound strange to you that may seem obvious to you but it has implications that we want to really understand then in chapter 2 we're going to take up the ver is the virtue of that he's not just deities humanity the fact that he's god is part of the picture is half the other half he's human he's not some gnostic apparition and there's all these weird ideas you know and we're going to also discover that he is superior because of the salvation he provided all three of these issues are with respect in contrast to angels that sounds like a frame a strange frame of reference but again that's one of the pillars of judaism where the whole role and mission of angels but as you go through this there is a small group of verses that open chapter 2 that we're going to treat as if it's part of chapter one doesn't matter um is the first of five warnings we'll get a taste of what that's all about but we're gonna be in this whole business of his deity so we picking up now from three verses we took three verses last time and it took us what uh half our time to catch up okay the writer says being made so much better than the angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they being made so much better so he's above the angels now inheritance is going to be a key issue so i won't deal with it here now let's talk a little bit about angels because he's he's he's promising all this to contrast with angels what do we know about angels well to see the jews regarded the angels as the most exalted of all god's creatures that's why the writer is picking on them first he's also going to talk about moses and aaron a lot of other things but he's starting with angels the law made it this shocked me to discover but it's true the law was given to moses by angels god gave it to them but the angels were the means if you will you find that in deuteronomy 3 psalm 68 and twice in the new testament acts 7 53 in galatians 3 19. that surprised me they were the agency here god came from sinai with ten thousand holy ones deuteronomy tells us now in the king james they say saints but actually should be holy ones a term that's used there in the hebrew uh also in psalm 68 17 is a term really used by the jews of angels not saints in a broader amorphous sense and if you were brought up with an old testament background you would have a very high view of angels if you if you really underst the reader was a christian but he really had an old testament roots and so that's that's a big deal in fact some of these angel appearances in the bible are called by theologian's theophanies because the term angel of the lord angel of yahu yortevae and so on are terms that many scholars think are idioms for god himself appearing somehow and some of them are regarded as a pre-incarnate appearance of jesus christ in the old testament appears in the old testament prior to bethlehem the angel of covenant malaga 3 in exodus 3. the angel who delivered hagar in genesis 16. the angel that delivered a lot while the other two went and took care of sodom and gomorrah in genesis 19. the passover night the death angel and you know that got the firstborn was an angel you don't mess with angels the angels are but they as high as they are the writers are going to emphasize their created beings they were present at the creation of the world they they shouted for joy they were made the scripture highlights that they were made created fashioned use what term you like they appear to be immortal that is in the sense they don't die they weren't forever they were created but they don't have any apparent end they're immortal they don't die like we do heaven is their home those are all things you can you can develop from the scripture they excel in strength some other than three and elsewhere they're capable apparently of choices because some of them chose to follow lucifer in his rebellion and now that's confirmed twice in the new testament ii peter 2 and jude 1. they are capable of assuming all kinds of forms they can be invisible they can materialize demons can't materialize angels can there's apparently they're not the same fallen angels and demons are not necessarily the same thing angels can appear like men genesis 18 is an example some we're told in hebrews chapter 13 we're going to discover that some of us may have entertained angels unawares they can masquerade at a dinner table we wouldn't recognize them stranger on the highway whatever on the other hand they can also take on some pretty wild appearances matthew 28 that counts like lightning rain as white as snow and you don't mess around with angels two of them wiped out the major cities of sodom and gomorrah in about in an hour one of them one evening destroyed 185 000 syrian soldiers one guy one one angel you don't mess with angels at the egyptian passover the firstborn of the cattle and everything else was slain blamed by the death angel they're missing they are god's ministers they do as bidding they also minister to god apparently daniel 7 10 they are holy they surround god's throne angels are seen doing battle on our behalf second king six and several islams havoc several places an angel stop the mouth of a lion for daniel in daniel 6. the angel several times sprung people out of prison acts 5 and 12. that occurs the writer picks seven old testament passages to support that christ is superior to the angels he proves this from the old testament not the new i think that's interesting we'll see those by the way there's all kinds of ranks of angels they're not all equal thrones principalities powers the angelic kingdom and and i we assume reason to believe that there are different ranks in satan's realm also they apparently accept material food in genesis they eat dinner and they can appear in human form i mentioned that they never dwell in men's bodies demons do that angels don't they don't need to ranks of angels there are a handful of these that are distinct in the greek they're translated principalities powers thrones and dominions but the greek terms that we find in at least four places and elsewhere imply ranks of angels and we're not here to split hairs on that but uh assuming there's five of them one of them is translated two different words of translated powers but there's five different ranks apparently at least let's continue for unto which of the angels said he at any time thou art my son this day have i begotten thee and again i will be to him a father and he shall be my son thou art my son this is something that god said of jesus not the angels this day what day he's begotten and uh we're going to find out that there were five times that he said all these things but anyway and again i will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son and so you know it's interesting it was paul's style to ask a question to make a point all through the pistols we find him doing that right i want you to be sense of these style issues this in my opinion it's paul but anyway he's quoting here from psalm 2 and he's also quoting from 2nd samuel 7 and when i first saw that years ago i didn't realize the significance of that second samuel 7 is the davidic covenant this thread really starts in a sense with the davidic covenant and climaxes with the millennium and uh and the father declared it twice verbally at the baptism in matthew 3 and of the transfiguration matthew 17 audibly from heaven this is my son now implies that the event occurs in time that means it's happening within the physical universe we're not talking about eternity beforehand it's in the physical thing of time that'll be turned out to be significant later but the second sample 714 i want you to notice that because this this thread is linked to the davidic covenant as we will bring out in the next session and again i will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son that's a reference to the promise that god gave david in second samuel 7 which we see celebrated in psalm 89 all through that psalm notice the writer here is drawing again and again and again from the old testament the messiah is to be the son of david literally we all see in our christmas cards isaiah 9 6 right and for unto us a child is born to us a son is given that's not us those aren't synonymous a child is born as human a son is given as divine they're both in view there respect the precision of the text in verse 6 and again when he bringeth the in the first begotten into the world he said let all the angels of god worship him all the angels of god worship who the son of god he's above the the point is that he's above the angels and by the way he's quoting from the greek version of the the uh old testament and psalm 97 and all angels are commanded to worship jesus christ thus is the point made that christ is above the angels the term first begotten you should be sense of that subject that's a term that involves dignity honor a position of excellency reuben in the old testament was the firstborn but he forfeited it being a firstborn can be forfeited roman reigns through sin in genesis 49. the the dominion aspect of his firstborn myth was given to judah the double portion aspect wasn't given to judah it was given to joseph who had two sons that were subsequently adopted by jacob to become in effect 13 tribes joseph was split into two so to speak and so but it's interesting that the forfeiture of that inheritance would have been reubens had he not messed up part of it was given to judah the dominion aspect and the double portion aspect was given to two others israel is spoken of as god's firstborn they went down to egypt as a family they came out as a nation and they were treated as the god's firstborn that's where the nation was born and in the new testament it appears seven times by the way and it's one of the 300 that's the christ is the firstborn is mentioned seven times and it's one of 300 titles of christ in the bible let's go on verse seven and of the angels he saith who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers as a flame of fire fire that's quoted literally from psalm 104 for fourth verse and uh where did where do ministers is the flame of fire well sodom and gomorrah is one example right the fire over egypt in the in the passover episodes continuing but unto the sun he saith thy throne o god is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom there's again a reference to a kingdom whose kingdom the son's kingdom we're going to be more and more sensitive this is quoted from psalm 45 and they draw a lot from that thy throne o god is forever and ever a statement of his divinity the father is saying to the son unto thy throne oh god he's calling the son god he's giving and he has his own throne this is a statement about the son's deity the deity of jesus christ and for how long for a thousand years no forever and ever there's a specific thousand year period that's another subject so how long is it thrown forever and ever his reign is eternal we know that from isaiah 6 and verse 7 right in chapter 9 verse 7. his throne is forever daniel 7 the promise to mary gabriel tells mary that her child is going to rule forever and ever thy kingdom that is going to be a big subject as we unfold this interesting epistle and we're going to find the roots of that in the davidic covenant and why i thought that's of course from amos 9 11 when they had the big debate in acts 15 about what does a gentile have to do to become a christian and so forth james presides and resolves the dispute by quoting from amos 9 that first he'll call out a people for the gentiles and then shall the tabernacle of david be reestablished and he quotes amos 9 and in acts 15 and we'll be dealing with that again later thou hast loved righteousness and hate iniquity before god even thy god hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows that's continuing the quote from psalm 45. there are two sides to his reign let's realize it's a two-edged sword so to speak he loved righteousness and he hates iniquity you can't forget either one of those he loves righteousness and hates wickedness we need you and i need to hate sin more than we do we get it mixed up we love sin and hate the sinner we don't admit it but we do it should be the other way around we love the sinner as he did but we hate sin we understand that god hates sin and god sends the comforter to help us to hate sin that's john 14 and elsewhere so all the way through we have messianic overtones he announces his deity he presents his position his throne his kingship reference to the scepter excellency or impartially of his reign the perfection of his character on earth the place of his subjection the reward in terms of being anointed and his preeminence these are all emerging from just a few verses continue verse 10 and thou lord in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thy hands the foundation of the earth wow most of us don't realize what the earth is most of us think of the earth as part of the creation and indeed it is and yet some surprising discoveries in genesis you see verses by these verses 10 through 12 x3 verses are all taken from psalm 102. the foundations of the earth are they precede the sun and the moon and the rest of the universe you got to be kidding i thought the nebular hypothesis you know that the earth came out of the sun no that's a nonsense that was fabricated by an occultist by the name of swedenborg who got laplace to endorse it not checking the math it's now provably nonsense mathematically and yet it's commonly taught today in astronomy classes and universities that sort of nonsense the foundation of the earth occurs by the way ten times in the scripture i find that fascinating i don't know if it has anything to do with the fact we now know there's ten dimensions to the physical universe but that's a whole other thing let's go out the earth was already present by the at the second verse of genesis 1. first verse yeah god created the beginning god created heaven the earth period carriage return new paragraph the earth became without form and void the word became a transitive verb requiring an object and it uh anyway it wasn't that way originally what happened we don't know all kinds of weird conjectures we do know that the sun and the stars appear in the fourth day the earth is around in the first day covered with water apparently from a previous fl a judgment of some kind noah's flood was the second flood not the first one whoa a lot of stuff here well those you check this out i'm not here to teach you that i'm here to get you to discover for yourself what you think will happen the next verse they shall perish but though remains they shall wax old as death of garment if you're in physics you recognize that immediately they shall perish that's an expression of the second law of thermodynamics which leads to what they call the ultimate heat death of the universe because everything is winding down to a uniform temperature all work is done by temperature differences and every time the temperature difference comes from work some of it's lost to the ambient so eventually the entire universe will become uniform temperature no more work can be done they call that the heat death well known in thermodynamics well known in cosmology the great discovery of 20th century science is that the universe is not infinite as finite it had a beginning it will have an end and that's in first timothy 6 proverbs 8 and in any respectable uh journal on the subject going on and as a vesture this is containing that same quote for some hundred as a vesture shall thou fold them up and they shall be changed and thou art the same and thy year shall not fail as a vesture thou shalt fold them up i think that's interesting that in order for space to be folded up there must be an additional dimension for it to fold into if you will need to be doing all that all of that is still from psalm 102 the boundaries of reality if we take man as sort of the center here and look bigger sizes increases to the right in my little diagram on the screen and over to the right as we look bigger and bigger and bigger we discover you can't get big forever because there's a finite limit that's what we mean by a finite universe that was a big shock to astronomy but it is the findings of 20th century science in astronomy astrophysics what have you going the other way is even more shocking because most of us can imagine that you can never get beyond smallness whatever small you divide in half that's not true see on the large size the macrocosm we have that on the smaller size we have in we discover that everything we have length mass time energy all are made up of indivisible units they're called quanta that's why they call the field quantum physics and subatomic particles can't be divided if you divide them they lose locality they're suddenly everywhere at one time wow weird stuff and the smallness has a limit so what we discover is that our physical universe is digital the smallness there are units that you can't get smaller than this digits as a digital boundary on the big side even the red shift we discover now is in steps it's digitized so we're in a digital simulation and we get into this in our epistemological stuff but just to remind you the scientific american ran an article in 2005 in the june issue pointing out reasons why scientists begin to suspect that our physical universe is but a shadow of a larger reality to which i say no kidding dick tracy that's what the bible has said all along so i invite you to chase that down but i find that very interesting because in first john 3 2 we have a physics term that i embrace with great excitement john says to his listeners beloved now are we the sons of god and it does not yet appear we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is what does that mean clearly after his resurrection jesus enjoyed a very strange body it was physical handle me and see us spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see me have and yet even though he's physical he could enter and leave closed rooms without passing through the floor ceiling windows doors whatever he was able to transcend our three-dimensional universe that means he had mathematicians say he must have had at least 11 dimensions i'm not going to get down that path but whatever it is we apparently enjoy the same thing because we're not going to see a representation of him we'll see him as he is if i see a photograph of you i see a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object we're not going to see a a three-dimensional representation of a four-dimensional object we're going to see whatever we'll have the same dimensionality he does that's a profound statement in john so i'll leave that with you we move on verse 13. but to which of the angels said he at any time sit on my right hand until i make thine enemies thy footstool well that's pretty interesting for a lot of reasons because first of all he obviously never said that to the angels but of course he did say it to his son but what fascinates me he said that in psalm 110. again the writer is always drawing upon the old testament to make his point because he's a jew talking to jews not as an apostle as simply one of them but there's something else about psalm 110 i can't get by because jesus when confronted with his antagonists asked them a question and by the way psalm 110 is quoted 25 times the new testament it's quoted 10 times in this epistle alone so you want to be aware of this but what's interesting this was the very verse that jesus used to confound his attackers and in psalm 110 the way it reads the lord said unto my lord sit thou at my right hand until i make thine enemies thy footstool and jesus asked the lawyers who's the messiah whose son is he well he's son of david they all knew that answer he says then how can david call him my lord who's the son of david how can he call him how could he call his son my lord and they had no answer in fact the matthew 20 text in matthew 2 from that day on they didn't ask him any more questions what you and i miss unless you've done our homework is that christ's entire argument hung on a yod because the yod the head of youth the name of god is uh makes it possessive and uh so the odd actually the odd following uh the uh the lord said to my lord um the yacht is the last letter of remember it goes from right to left so yeah okay it's the last letter and uh that reminds me of another verse she said think now that i come to destroy the law of the prophets i cannot destroy but to fulfill for verily i say unto you till heaven and earth pass one yacht or one tittle shall not pass from the law until all be fulfilled now a yacht a yacht is a yacht or tittle those are hebraisms for what you and i would call a dotting of an eye or crossing a t let's move on we have just covered fourteen uh from four to four ten verses and in this the son's position was unique quoting from psalm two seven he was the head of the davidic covenant from second samuel 7 14 the angels worshiped the son of psalm 97 the angels served the son in psalm 104 the son rules the kingdom in psalm 45 the son is the creator in psalm 102 and he is enthroned at the right hand of god in some understand all these that you're dealing here with quotes from from the old testament every one of them and the last verse in psalm 14 are they not all mentioning spirit sent forth to minister for them who shall be what the heirs of salvation the heirs of salvation what is the heirs of salvation see a future salvation is in view who shall be heirs this can't be referring to a past tense it's something future right okay justification is past tense justification with respect to everlasting life is not applicable to this verse because it's a past event john 3 18 john 5 24 ephesians 2 5 and 8. all kinds of places that nail that down those justified already possess everlasting life it's not a gift i mean excuse me it is a gift it's not a conditional inheritance salvation is not a conditional inheritance it's past tense this is a future tense term those who are about to inherit are christians they're already christians but they're about to inherit if they don't blow it and that's what the warnings are all about i want to remind you the paradigm of salvation earl rockefeller always makes he says i am saved i'm being saved and i will be saved that's his way of dramatizing a point of what i call the parody you know in school we had paradigms of verbs past tense present tense future tense you all have that well justification is past tense it's a gift of god of everlasting life received by faith alone in christ alone not christ plus works no christ alone if you trust christ you're justified that stamps your passport for heaven you've got entry it doesn't mean you own it you can enter a hotel doesn't mean you inherited it the next step is present tense sanctification that's a work in progress that involves faith and the obedience or works of the believer sanctification continuing every one of us in this room included is a work in progress going on the final result is called glorification that the future tense that's the result of all the previous things going on all believers according to romans 8 will be will be ultimately glorified that is resurrected and given a body like christ but some will have more glory than others more reward than others and that's what hebrews is all about the book of hebrews past tense separation from the penalty of sin past tense past your past sins you're separated from that penalty present tense you're separated from the power of sin you have the holy spirit that will give you the power to overcomes and it no longer need rain in your life future tense separation from the presence of sin that doesn't happen until we're all glorified with the father the present tense we call justification the assuming the past tense of qualification the present tense we call sanctification and the future tense we call glorification understand those three differences and the whole book will unfold before you justification sanctification glorification those are the three tenses of a word that we use sloppily when we say salvation which is ambiguous so we encourage our students in the institute to use the precise term that relates to the topic justification segregation glorification justification is for us sanctification is in us justification declares us righteous we haven't changed but we were declared righteous by the authority of christ sanctification makes the sinner righteous justification removes the guilt and penalty of sin sanctification removes the growth and power of sin that's the differences the very fundamental differences epistle to hebrews is all about sanctification it takes justification for granted soteriological salvation that we're talking about that is separation from our deliverance from hell that's never alluded to an epistle of hebrews never comes up it's taken for granted the salvation that's talked about the episode of hebrews is eschatological it's a future tense it's the future aspect of salvation attached to christ's coming kingdom and the inheritance that's afforded the believer that is in view and in order to attain this future faith and de and the obedience are required faith and works if you will there are three principle views i want to remind you of we went through this last time but needs to be in front of us there's the calvinistic view the armenian view and a third view the what i'll call the partaker view calvinism is usually represented by five precepts i won't go through them all they're usually summarized by the acronym tulip total depravity unconditional election limited atonement irresistible grace perseverance of the saints and what calvinism i'm being unfair here i just want to be brief because there's different versions of it basically all true believers will preserve will persevere to the end well how do you know if you're a true believer well you have to wait to the end to find out okay perseverance is the final test of irrelevant reality that's why some writers call this experimental predestination you're predestined but you won't find out until you get to the end to see if you were predestined okay that effectively denies any assurance of salvation ironically enough proof is always the future the armenian has a different view sort of they believe the earth's justification can be lost believers are in danger of losing our salvation as a result of sinful behavior thus the believers eternal security rests in christ's work and the individual's decision to continue if i can screw it up i know i will that's not eternal life that's conditional with a lot of fine print in the contract and works play a key role in retaining salvation to the armenian both these views while the war has gone on for centuries between these two opposing camps they're surprisingly similar both views acknowledge that christ's completed work is essential but both and both acknowledge the importance of works in the life of the believer in some way but these even though they're direct opposition they're very both surprisingly close to the catholic view of salvation by works there is so we have a basic division the whole theological world is divided into groups calvinism with general security perseveration and what some people call experimental precedent redesignarians are many only those that persevere to the end are saved okay that's where the war has been fought and they've both been arguing they're both right and what they assert and they're both wrong what they deny they both are displaced in effect by a biblical view which introduces the concept of overcomers they speak of eternal they know of their internal security secure from all the obvious passages but they make a distinction between entering heaven and inheriting big difference there's a wide variety of rewards and that's the best of you we're going to take hebrews 1 god has spoken the first two chapters the revelation is complete and final through the birth of the son the d of this the deity of the son is emphasized there are seven messianic quotations that underscore these statements his airship inheritance you find emphasized three times in just fourteen verses the sun is the heir of all things superior to the angels by means of inheritance that's verse four christ's supremacy in the present and also in the eschatological future is emphasized in these 14 verses this first ch we're just in chapter one of the book of hebrews the crystal the christology of chapter one is more excellent nature versus four and five he's worshipped by the age of six made the angels verse seven he's sitting on the throne in verse eight and nine anointed above them in verse nine and he himself is immutable and the eternal creator okay and he's a higher place of honor this is really the summary of chapter one next time we take chapter two including the first of the five warnings and uh in the chapter two in addition to dealing with the first of those warnings chapter 2 is also going to anticipate two objections to the idea that the sun is above angels if christ is above the angels yet became a man which is lower than the angels how can he still be hired in the angels while in the form of a man that's a reasonable question isn't it in fact we got it in the q a time here didn't we the second objection is that christ died angels don't die christ did how can he be higher than the angels if he died how can that make him better than the immortal angels these two objections the writer will anticipate and and deal with in chapter two he's also going to talk about introduce we're going to also take the opportunity next time to get at more clearly this strange phrase we all use when we quote the lord's prayer as we what we call the lord's prayer thy kingdom come what does that mean what are we praying for when we say thy kingdom would come and the answer may shock you and if if that's what are the keys to the kingdom every weird group on the planet earth has their theory on what the keys to the kingdom are they're the catholics have their view they are at caesarea philippi where it comes up it's not the only place it comes up and all kinds of groups somehow jump on that phrase that they have the keys to the kingdom what on earth is involved there you will not can't possibly answer until you understand what kingdom you're talking about and the answer is in the old testament and we'll find that next time and we'll also just find it derived from the davidic covenant so this is a piece of background that we're going to take advantage of because the the writer to the hebrews takes it presumes it among his readers but we've got to plug that hole because most of us have not been taught anything about the coming kingdom so with that let's stand for closing word of prayer

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020