Hebrews (Session 6) Chapter 5

okay we are in session six in which we're going to address specifically chapter five of the epistle of the hebrews and just by way of a little bit of review for those that have joined us recently hebrews is considered the riddle if you will of the new testament the authorship is anonymous and we take for granted in fact i think i can remove all doubt if you want to take the time on it that paul wrote it but that's debated by some he didn't sign it for some very good reasons many scholars spend their efforts supporting various conjectures and it's very interesting as i study those conjectures the ones that really understand the book are the ones that also happen to recognize paul's authorship that might be unrelated it may be operative but in any case we do know the author had a vast knowledge of the old testament but he also was a hellenistic jew and he recognized the people he's writing to were believers that's very important to understand and they they were had much they're facing a lot of very serious persecution and that's what he is dealing with there some of the issues are the nature of the warnings the book is built around five warnings many people that study the book misunderstand they see those warnings as interruptions no they are really the pivotal points the author's making but in any case you want to understand those warnings as we go you need to understand to whom it was written let's not for you you may think i'm over emphasizing this all through the letter it's clear that he's writing to jewish believers he puts himself in with them we us etc all the way through and the real thrust of this epistle is to it plugs a hole a huge hole in the typical christian's profile of what he believes because too much in our culture if you accept jesus christ and you become justified by faith that's the end of the road in most people's perspective not realizing no that's just first base and that's what this is the real thrust of hebrews is going to i'll show you is your inheritance you can't lose your salvation but you can miss an opportunity to inherit things that are fantastic that god has for you for the for those that are faithful so we're going to talk about the dangers being presented for not persevering to the end finishing well is the name of the game now the source of the difficulties is that the kingdom is the central theme of all scripture the kingdom of heaven god christ's kingdom on the earth and one reason the book is so misunderstood is so many scholars are a millennial in their perspective they assume it's allegorical allegories are a license to invent no we take the bible seriously and we think god means what he says and says what he means and if so this book is a cornerstone of the of of of the kingdom that's coming and this the tragedy is the most denominations that come out of the reformation uh have uh i have a vestige of all millennial attitudes about the kingdom and as a result they'll be blind to what this book is released talking about a millennium is not a peripheral issue my dear friend walter martin used to regard he was that he was premillennial but he regarded eschatology in general as peripheral theology shouldn't divide fellowship and he's right about that but a millennium is the first why on the road and if you're a millennial you'll miss a great deal of what god has here for you there's more prophecy about the millennium than any other period of time in the entire bible it's not just revelation 20. it's all through it and it's the fulfillment of the davidic covenant i taught the millennium for many years uh i've always been pre-millennial but uh in in but i've never i never connected it out never really until recently recognized that it's it's the davidic it's the fulfillment of the divinity covenant that changes the perspective it's our inheritance not our justification our justification by christ's by our faith in christ alone is taken for granted throughout this entire epistle yeah that's not an issue our inheritance is and it's it our inheritance will be a result of our faithfulness and our obedience so we want to find out what that's all about i also want to highlight rademacher's model for salvation which i think is also a key to understanding it that is that salvation has three tenses past present and future a past tense is our separation from the penalty of sin we call that justification the present tense is separation from the power of sin and as believers we have we can call on the holy spirit to give us power over sin and our the future tense of course is our separation from even the presence of sin and when we at at the uh with our resurrection bodies and the rest of it so past tense justification present tense really called sanctification and glorification we encourage our students in the institute to use those terms not salvation is is too broad to be uh precise enough so all three of these are simply elements past present and future of what we collectively call salvation okay the major pillars of jerusalem the author is going to go through and attack the major pillars of judaism he's talking to jewish believers and reminding of the reminding them of things that they should already know that judaism is not the answer christ is and he institutes five warnings and the issue in each of the five warnings is ultimately our inheritance not a justification and uh he's going to introduce a new priesthood a new covenant then he's going to go through a here a whole what we call the hall of faith the heroes of the past and and the real goal beca is is to become a metacoi an overcomer the partaker in christ and uh so the first seven verses are just going to present jesus as a new and better deliverer he's better than the angels he's better than moses and greater leader than joshua but interspersed first here we'll discover warnings five warnings we've had two of them already we're going to get to the third one tonight but we're going to talk about the priest better than aaron and then the warning number three of the five is the big one that's the riddle that has many many christians confused on certain lying weight nights if you will and we'll try to deal with that and uh warning number three when we get to chapter eight it'll shift we'll start talking about the cup the very thing that gives the new testament its name that we're in a new covenant with a better sanctuary and a better sacrifice and then then the epistle will shift to practical applications of all of this and that's where we get the the fourth warning the hall of faith the extra exhortation the endurance and then the fifth warning so that's a quick snapshot of where we are when we started out the first chapter establishing the son of god's superiority over the initially the angels um it's interesting that every point that was made i won't go through them again but what i want to make is every one of these is supported by scripture the writer here is not relying on any apostolic authority even though he could in a sense he deliberately did not sign it because he didn't want to uh he saw christ himself as the apostle to the jews that's the way he deals with him the only place in the bible where it speaks of jesus as the apostle is in this epistle because the writer is regarding him as the apostle the writer being the apostle to the gentiles namely paul but in any case what's interesting every point he makes is built on a foundation that his listeners have accepted they're jews they know their old testament and every point he made in the first chapter we had seven different quotes from several different places in the old testament making those points that'll be a style all the way through and he goes through and highlights we last time we talked all the way moses and christ are contrasted and and i won't go through all those again and the seven proofs of his a appear superior that's where he he positions christ as an apostle to the jews in contrast to moses as an apostle jews in each case of course jesus obviously deliberately eclipsing all of these and so moses was after all just a servant in his house and and jesus is the son the inherits there's a one thing that came up in earlier chapters where god swore not very often is god swear an oath but he swears an oath in his wrath that they people involved shall not enter into my arrest and that is was leaned upon especially last time and what do we mean by his rest and how is that used they shall not enter my rest and we'll talk we'll give you just a quick summary and you remember at the provocation in in numbers 13 they were confronted with the opportunity to get go enter the land and 10 spy said gee they record they recognized for 12 guys for 40 days the 10 guys came back and said hey we can't handle it they're too big for us josh and caleb said come on god's on our side they they folded they they didn't have the the faith to go in so god took an oath and uh so told the ones that didn't go that generation was going to pass away during those 40 years it's their children that would inherit the possession of the land and over a million were saved out of egypt i point out to you that only two inherited land but psalm 95 was a pivotal reference for that whole uh business and of course that's where god in the in the time of david that oath that god made about disinheriting them is renewed in david's time through psalm 95 and is quoted by the writer to hebrews so that brings us up to date so let's talk about these rest the original rest of course was god's rest that was instituted in genesis 2 2. when he rested the concept of rest isn't relaxation the concept of breast means the cessation of works his works were completed so he rested it wasn't that he was tired it was that his job was done you see the difference it's important to understand that we hear a rest we think we visit you know we visualize a hammock or something no no the idea is that he he finished his task he met his objectives okay well that canaan rest is what occurs of course in numbers 13-14 that's where they get they've been they've been saved out of egypt red sea all of that and they're now got the opportunity to enter the land and they fail to do it they haven't got the the faith to go forward and so that's when the the to to earn their canaan rest they had a task to go to take over the land they didn't do it and so they are relegated to 38 years of wandering a 38-year detour for an 11-day journey and that that there's a lesson what we're interested in isn't just the history it's the lesson for us because the writer to hebrews is applying this not just to them then but to his listeners at the time and this whole idea was renewed in effect in david through psalm and that offer is still open if if you accomplish what that which god has for you to do you can enter into his rest you've done what he's told you to do whether it's entering the land or whatever and that's what we're going to talk about now for the hebrew christians this of course is being offered to them in in hebrews 4. now it's interesting by the way those that were hebrews that were christians when christ was speaking that was a.d 32 that that were at the end of his ministry and if they are faithful they will end up being don't go back to judaism or you'll die because they're gonna the the fall of jerusalem is coming if they're faithful they will be like the rest of the christians and go to pella east of the jordan like christ instructed to him in luke 21 and eusebius writes that when jerusalem fell over a million people were killed men women children no christians were why because they followed their directions what's interesting that same today that was 38 years for the the the generation in canaan is also it's 38 years for the generation that's listening to the original listeners to this epistle it's 40 years normally 38 years precisely where do i get that deuteronomy 2 14. but anyway now for us then what is that rest well that's the millennial rest our our inheritance that's awaiting us if we're faithful faithful doing what ah that's glad you asked that's what the epistle is all about so we have past tense rest that's justification rest all of you should be in justification rest because if you've trusted christ he did 100 of what's needed you are saved you your your passport to end to heaven is stamped okay you can enter you may enter but you don't inherit what do you inherit that depends on your maturity spiritual maturity how much how how how far have you grown you say you're saved what have you done with it that's the question that will be asked at the judgment c so in the future sense of course it's our kingdom inheritance and most of us probably don't that that should be prioritizing our lives for most of us it's an academic abstraction no no no it should be the primary yardstick that we measure every decision everything we do is is is it is to preserve that inheritance okay well the first seven chapters we've uh you know is the region we're in better than angels better than most joshua vision there those are the buildups in his basic fabric but the three warnings are the key points and we're going to encounter the preamble to the third warning tonight because when we get to the end of chapter 5 the setup for the warning is there and that's going to be the peak tonight later on in subsequent sessions of course we'll get through the other better covenant practice applications and so on so we're going to go from chapter 4 to chapter 5 up to chapter 6 tonight to get a perspective now he's going to address the major the next major pillar of jesus we talked about angels we talked about moses now we're going to talk about the levitical priesthood and that's a big topic in fact he's going to set it up give us a warning we'll talk about the warning then from chapter 7 to 10 the priesthood is the pivot to the whole epistle surprisingly enough prophet and priest there's a difference between a prophet and a priest that's the direction of the communication who's dialing who right a prophet is god's representative to the people right he exhorts and presents god the priest presents the people to god here's the way i decided i thought this maybe the prophet is god's presentation of the people the priest presents the person to god so that's that's a way to view their roles and missions if you will in our case christ is both right of course but uh okay we actually made it to the first verse of of the chapter night i'm we're we're ahead of the head of the parker hebrews chapter five verse one for every high priest taken from among men notice he's from men he has to be a man christ can be our priest because he's a man right is ordained from four men in things pertaining to god that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins who gave us the most ultimate sacrifice it wasn't aaron who's christ who can have compassion for the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself is also is also compassed with infirmity in other words a good priest knows where you're at so to speak he can sympathize he can understand and christ indeed can why because he not only created you he's a man himself and by reason thereof he ought as for the people he also for himself to offer for sins now that's referring of course to aaron because aaron could offer sins for himself offerings for sins christ didn't need to he was sinless he offered himself actually and no man taketh his honor unto himself in other words you don't become a priest because you choose to you are selected now in the levitical sense you had it not only be a levite you had to be a son of aaron a descendant of aaron you didn't volunteer or train while you trained but i mean you didn't choose a career of being a priest you either were or were not a priest you're with me okay i mean you you didn't take this honor unto yourself but he that is called of god as aaron was aaron was the first high priest and he was called to that office he didn't seek it he probably didn't want it and he certainly didn't merit it as we'll see but he was appointed by god the aaronic priesthood not to be confused with the priesthood that we're heading into he's setting up a strong man here we're going to talk about the aaronic priesthood that's what his readers were used to and you need to understand the predicament of the re the reader to this epistle pick yourself alive after 32 a.d before 70 a.d that's the window you're jewish you've got divinely appointed people doing divinely appointed rituals in a divinely appointed place over there in the temple and you're giving that all up when you get baptized for christ you're shedding your judaism becoming christian can you imagine how that was how they were not accepted they were persecuted that's what they're chafing under they're thinking about going back to judaism i'll get saved later kind of thing that's not an option that's basically the theme here can they lose their salvation absolutely not and it's a pro it's a prelude to this whole discussion of eternal security that i'm not going to re-badger here except make one point and that is that if you if you can lose your salvation god loses more than you do because he loses his good name because god jesus said that no one can take them out of my all that you father all that you give me shall come to me and whosoever comes with me i will know why it's cast out no one can take him out of my hand in the next verse this is john 10 verse 28 29 no one can take him out my father's hand there are two hands involved you can't get out of there if you tried and i love to use water bar a quote that i attribute to walter martin if you if you can lose your salvation i got a new name for god butter figures and it's it's an irreverent way of making a point perhaps but your security is because of what christ completed on the cross he said to telesty it is finished so let's make sure that that's not a lingering concern but there is a problem and that's inheritance now aaron was singled out by god in exodus 16 he was officially called the priests good priesthood in exodus 28 he was reconfirmed in office number 17 then he was challenged cora led a rebellion and god sort of explained it to cora a little more clearly he opened the earth and swallowed he and his followers up king saul attempted to take the role of a priest he's a king he's not supposed to be the king and the priests were separate kings were from judah priests were from levi the idea was separate king saul got impatient waiting for nathan to show up so he he started to perform his own sacrifice and that led to god's rejecting him as king and the in the anointing of david first samuel 13. when king uzziah tried to burn incense here's again a king intruding on the office of a priest he got leprosy god's making a point here god takes himself very seriously we need to also so now shifting back to the text here and so christ also glorified not himself to be made a high priest but he that said unto him thou art my son today i have i begotten me where does he get that where is the writer quoting from here psalm 2 right jesus our high priest is mentioned in psalm 2. he's he's appointed high priest by whom his father okay thou art my son today i have begotten thee and the psalm goes on let's quote from psalm 2 7. he had been mentioned twice before in this letter and we may have touched on it then but now we're getting into it and he's safe unto him in another place again now the quote again the writer isn't building his case on any personal authority he's simply quoting from scriptures that are accepted by his readers thou art a priest forever after the order of melchizedek that phrase is a strange phrase the more you know about it the stranger it is so we're going to touch a little bit about the order of melchizedek in contrast to the order of aaron it's a different priesthood altogether this quote happens to come from psalm 110 verse 4 and i want i'm going to get into that tonight a little bit because it's a good review but the melchizedek priesthood is just a couple of verses in genesis that are then echoed in psalm 110 and picked up here for three chapters or more the milk and uh it is the cornerstone of the entire epistle it has few and there are no other parallels to this anywhere in the new testament anywhere else in the new testament and it's gonna it's going to develop an estimate a comparison between the two covenants the aaronic covenant and the the the melchizedek i should the iranian priesthood and melchizedek priesthood and it's also going to do then that's going to lead to a contrast between the old covenant and the new covenant the very thing that gives our bible its names new and old testament if you will but we're going to take a look at the two root things here it's too important psalm 110 verse 4. psalm 110 is one of the most interesting shortest but most interesting psalms in the entire old testament verse 1 itself is quoted 25 times in the new testament and of those times four of them are in the in this epistle it gets worse than that verse 4 the melchizedek verse is quoted four times in the new testament in fact the in the epistle of hebrews there are ten quotes or illusions alone just in this in so it's it's obviously a key reference to the writer here let's take a look at it while i add it the lord said unto my lord sit thou at my right hand until i make thine enemies thy footstool that verse jesus used to put the lawyers to total confusion i'll show you that in a minute jesus used that verse to put the lawyers to total confusion the lord said unto my lord sit down on my right hand tell me the enemy's confusion he was under attack the herodians that's the political party tried to trap him by forcing make a political statement that would mark him as a traitor to rome and they failed doing that then the sadducees stepped up that's the liberals if you will they tried to trap him with a ridiculous question regarding the mosaic law and they they failed there then the pharisees that's they're the the the conservatives you might call them tried to trap them and jesus answer puzzled them so while they're all trying to regroup he says let me ask a question they all had their shot at it right and when you're dealing with these lawyers you better know what you're doing right he said let me ask you a question and it says his own matthew 22 the pharisees were gathered together and jesus asked him what thinking of christ whose son is he they said and well son of david there are no dummies they knew that right then jesus said to them how then doth david in spirit call him lord saying the lord said unto my lord sit down right on my right hand till i make thine enemies thy footstool he's quoting the first verse of psalm 110. if david then call him lord how is he his son well that blew up they didn't they murdered imagine they mashed their teeth whatever son of david he they knew he was son of david that's all through second samuel all through the psalms lots of them micah 5 2. in fact in proverbs he even shows up you know what is his name what is his son's name if thou can tell speaking of god in proverbs 30. i won't start on that one here okay no i love this i love this no man was able to answer a word neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions so this is a well-known episode in matthew 22 where he puts let me show you though what the whole thing hangs on if you look at the first verse of psalm 110 in hebrew you'll discover yoteva that's the name of the you know the the the lord the lord and he and it uses the term adonai in other words the lord said unto my lord at adonai the whole key is a yod that yod on adonai makes it possessive the lord said unto my lord you see the writer is indicating possession here so when you translate it see we missed that because we're not trying to translate the lord said to my lord said that jesus said okay if you know that okay if the messiah is christ is the son of david how can david say he's my lord this whole case that put them to total confusion is a yawd that it's a little thing you and i would mistake for an apostrophe or something remember what jesus said in the sermon on the mount think now that i can destroy the torah of the prophets i cannot destroy but to fulfill for verily i said to you until heaven and earth pass one yacht or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law until i'll be filled now yatter tittle the yacht is what is a little thing you and i would think is a blemish of the paper a tittle is a little hook on some of the letters but anyway okay let's move on the let the next few verses of psalm 10 lord send a rod of thy strength out of zion ruled out in the midst of thine enemies thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power and in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning and thou hast the dew of thy youth the lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a priest forever after the order of melchizedek there is that quote that comes up again well where does this melchizedek first show up in the scripture if it's just a little footnote so to speak on a battle genesis 14 the battle of the nine kings let's take a look at it the fourteenth year came sherlock and the kings that were with him and smote the rephaims and astaroth and kharnem and the zamzumins and ham and the imeems in shabbath kyrie fame which by the way most of these are what do you recognize those names nephilim good for you several of the rephaims the the zazumi's and those are ones that joshua had the instructions to wipe out every man woman and child but that's later right and the horites in their mount seer unto el paron which is by the wilderness and they returned came to another place i can't pronounce properly and mishapat which is kadesh and smote all the country of the malachites and also the amorites that dwelt in zanatamar wow and there went out from the king of sodom and the king of gomorrah and the king of admiral and the king of zeboem and the king of bela these are rebels now the same azure they joined the battle with them in the veil of sin and shadow of our the king of elam and with the title the king of nations and am rafael the king of shinar and ariak the king of lsr four kings with five and the veil of sidon was full of flying pits and the kings of sodom and gomorrah fled and fell there and they that remained fled to the mountain they took all the goods of sodom and gomorrah and all their vitals and they went their way in other words the four rebelled against the the boss and he took his five of his buddies and they wiped out the four right so okay but along the way they made a big mistake because down as when they wiped out sodom that gang they took lot abram's brother's son who dwelt in sodom and his goods and departed from their point of view that's a small footnote but it was not a small footnote to his brother abraham was probably one of the richest men in the in the world there at that time so we have the shemites amraphel aryak shetlamar tidal and we had the hemites against them four against five i had it backwards by the way because it was fiverr with five were the rebel rebels because the hamitz were the rebels against chair de la mayor very interesting list by the way because cher del amir is the lead guy he's the top dog but he's not listed first over there amraphel the king of shinar is why he's not important now but he's going to report later because that shinar is essentially a synonym for babylon he'll become more important later and that's that's biblical lists are you got to watch those so these these this whole gang of nine served cheryl mayor for 12 years but in the 13th year there was a rebellion of the hemites but cheryl mayor succeed successfully defeated and spoiled the rebels and took lot abram's nephew captive from sodom you're with me so far okay i became one that had escaped and told abraham the hebrew for he dwelt in the plain of mamra the amorite the brother ishgal and the brother enter and these were confederate with abraham so he had his buddies too right and when abraham heard that his brother was taken captive he armed to get this he armed his trained servants born in his own house 318 and pursued them unto dan now scholars are torn a little bit as to whether they were all born in this house literally or whether that just means they were trained under him there's a there's a there's some linguistic issues behind all that but the point is he had his 318 guys that successfully went and rescued lot he divided himself against them he and his servants by night and smote them and pursued them into hoba which is on the left hand of damascus and he brought back all the goods and also brought again his brother lot and his goods and the women also think of that and the people and the king of sodom went out to meet him after his return imagine he was impressed because abraham pulled off with the king of sodom couldn't he brought it right and after bina after his return from the slaughter of shadow of the kings that were with him at the valley of chevy which is in kingsdale then we have this name show up out of nowhere and melchizedek king of salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the most high god now um zedek means righteousness melky is king melchizedek is a title he's the king of righteousness and he's also the king of salem but he's also a priest this is right away if you're a student of the scripture you're surprised because here is a guy that is a king and a priest both if you're familiar with your bible you know that levites and judah you don't have kings and priests combined there are only three people that are kings and priests melchizedek was a king and a priest jesus christ will be a king and a priest who's the third probably sitting right here yeah let's hope so you bet you god bless you yeah and melchizedek blessed him like a priest would and said blessed be abraham of the most high god possessor of heaven and earth very unusual title for god but i will get into that here and he blessed and blessed be the most high god which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand and he gave him tithes of all abraham give him gave him tithes okay abraham gives him tithe that's going to be a big deal to the writer of hebrews later because that proves that melchizedek is superior to abraham and levi is yet born he's still in the loins of abraham therefore melchizedek priest is above a levitical priest it's the point the writer is going to make it's a very rabbinical kind of point but he's going to build on that little phrase so abraham's army 318 trained servants rescues lot okay he's a king and a priest he receives abraham's tithes and that's going to be emphasized in chapter 6 of of hebrews and administers bread and wine ministers bread and wine that's interesting where does that come up again in joseph's dream in egypt remember he's in prison the other two the wine steward and the baker are there and so forth and out of that comes eventually strangely his redemption out of prison right bread and wine it's student here uh echoed in the story of joseph which is a type of christ in many ways in over a hundred ways actually and of course is emblem emblematic to you and i in what the lord's supper right it doesn't say bread and grape juice by the way it's bread and wine i just thought i'd mention that okay and there of course allusions to this not only in psalm 110 but in hebrews chapters five six and seven melchizedek king of righteousness and king of salem salem is an old name for jerusalem on some authors some authorities question that but i think there's abundance of support that what was then salem later becomes jerusalem he's also priest of the most high god melchizedek very interesting guy receive tithes it's the only mentions of the ones that we've just looked at and it's going to be contrary to the political priesthood because it represents this leviticus priesthood put it this way is a separation of both priesthood and kingship when reuben forfeits his birthright his priestly role in the family goes to levi and his first born son status goes to judah so it gets split there interesting enough and the two elements by melchizedek i think are fascinating we get on and on by that but okay again let's get back to hebrews believe it or not who in the days of his flesh when he had offered prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death was heard that he feared and this of course is our high priest in view here his request for deliverance was granted fully at the ready in his resurrection with his proclamation of the death defeated you're looking at gethsemane and all of that here melchizedek order even abraham ties he blessed abraham he was a type of the priest that lives forever or that writer the hebrews is going to make the point that melchizedek in the biblical text has no parents and no death recorded that doesn't mean he didn't die there's just no death recorded there's no birth because he's in there as a type okay it's interesting that all through the scripture there are types of the bride of christ there's ruth the bride of boaz right there's eve the bride of adam he's the first adam christ the last adam you can go through every one of those in which the wife is a type of the church there's seven of them in none of them is their death recorded what do you mean they didn't die no of course they died but in model they're they're presenting as a type the bride of christ which of course doesn't die follow me so melchizedek is a type many people get confused by that we'll get to that too see levi even though he wasn't born yet paid him ties because he was in the he's viewed as being in the loins of abraham and of course the permanence of christ's priesthood is implied by the abrogation of the levitical system that's what's going to come up here melchizedek was a priest without an uh without an oath and without an end and not even not without an oath and without it priests can neither be transmitted or interrupted by death and so on okay no record of birth or death by melchizedek was he shem you'll fight people well he was probably shem hashem was still alive and all that no because we know shem's genealogy that would puncture the myth that would puncture the type here was melchizedek an old testament appearance of christ there are people that suggest that no because christ priesthood is after the order after the similitude of melchizedek you can't be the type and be it together it's a contradiction in terms the melchizedek a celestial being of some kind no he's a man that's what hebrews 7 is going to bring out so just take it forward he's a type a mysterious type but a fascinating type and it's emphasis that type is emphasized by the writer of hebrews in chapter seven we're going to really get into this the king of righteousness and peace all in romans as well as isaiah his work will be righteousness and shall be peace righteous peace and joy and colossians made peace through the blood of christ justified by faith see zedek melchizedek is the is the king of righteousness as contrasted to adonai zedek adonai zedak means the lord of righteousness and he was the guy that was king of jerusalem that created the alliance that joshua has to put down joshua's adversary in the book of joshua ultimately is out of ni zedek the lord of righteousness is he which is antithetical of course he's a anti-type he's uh in fact he's a type if you went to of the antichrist and it's very very interesting that joshua's facing seven seven heads huh there were ten all together because three were put down by moses before joshua took over so there's ten but seven and you can go through all that later okay five contract jesus has a better position he's a better priest he's a better priesthood because he's a better covenant appreciated a better sanctuary and based on a better secret there were better better better betters all through the book of hebrews so that is the background fabric of the writer but that's not his main point his main points are the warnings he continues here though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things which he severed learned obedience that throws a lot of people he learned from the things that he suffered it's a play on words in the greek from a greek proverb that he learned by obedience that he he he he obtained obedience doesn't mean that he learned i'm praying many people jump to all kinds of improper christology from that christ didn't learn by obedience in the way we would think of that in the english what that means we wouldn't go that way and being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation all them that obey him let's say eternal salvation well if it's eternal you can't lose it can you let's not confuse ourselves right okay called of god a high priest after the order of melchizedek eternal salvation remember jesus said to telesty it is finished can be translated paid in full john 19. now the obedience that's addressed here is not the obedience of works because salvation is never by works it's the obedience is the obedience of faith and that's what he's talking about here as we go through and we'll get that now all this is a build up to a rebuke the author develops the topic of the priesthood but now he interrupts himself because he's going to say you guys aren't ready for what i'm about to teach you what i'm about to teach is too advanced for you listen to this he's going to give a preamble before you say warning number three his warning is about stagnation your i'm going to pretend you are the listeners of the epistle hebrew your failure to progress to spiritual maturity that's what he's going to deal with here there it's going to be the third of five warnings i want to remind you once again all warnings are a unit they go together and complement each other each builds upon the other each intensifies until the final fifth one and each of these rely heavily on israel's exodus as the example for us as individual christians paul wrote in romans 15 4 whatsoever things are written a fourth time we're written for our learning well this is this is going to lean heavily on those old testament examples the exodus generation was a redeemed people they never went back to egypt they but they failed to heed god's instruction and therefore we're judged by being disinherited all were written to believers all five of these they do not represent a loss to the past aspect of salvation that is justification the warnings represent the very real possibility of the loss of privileges or rewards offered to the believer which will be revealed at the judgment seat of christ that's really what we're all talking about here what's at stake what are these believers going to lose forfeit or suffer not salvation rewards at the judgment seat of christ and you cannot escape this by trying to apply it to others the burden of hebrews is not the rescuing of sinners from hell it's the bring of sons to glory that's the burden of this book five major warnings we had the danger of drifting when we're in chapter two we have the danger of disobedience introduced in chapter three through four we're now going to be an area where it's the progress to maturity that's the issue and he's going to highlight as a going in position the peril of being dull of learning and dull of hearing and all of learning and develop and dull of progress there are 16 different views of the problem verse i'm going to show you tonight 16 different views then we're going to have two others later on as we got in the epistle we're going to go from the danger of disobedience was the last one to the progress towards maturity let's look starting at verse 11. the writer says of whom we have many things to say speaking of christ and all of this we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing ye are dull of hearing you notice how tactful he is of his audience yeah doesn't sound seeker friendly does it of whom and of course of whom is melchizedek and the order of melchizedek namely jesus christ the writer clearly states that his readers are in no condition to receive the subsequent teaching you guys are not ready for what's coming that's why i'm going to leave it for the next session he calls them immature backward untaught dull of hearing that's always that's what he's calling his listeners for when for the time he ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god and become such as have need of milk not of strong meat and he's going to continue have need of milk and he's talking about you guys are you know you should be teaching but you need to be taught the first principle the abcs if you will see he's really accusing him of regression failing to advance the problem the topics that are coming belong to the category of strong food not milk he divides it in two categories milk that's for infants and strong meat or strong food for the to grow on you're not ready for that you're still on milk is saying he's going to develop all that in chapter seven going on but he's saying you guys aren't ready to go on why you need to develop spiritually in order to show the ability and teaching instead of being retaught the same things over and over again i won't ask for a show of hands but how many of you are tired of going to church and hearing the same things over and over and over again i know some of you saying the same thing here i keep reviewing too much at the first time he says no but i i can remember when i was at the naval academy we didn't have to go to the chapel you could sign up for what we call church parties and go to one of the church and it was a way to sample different churches out in town but you signed up for a semester so you were stuck for that for the semester and it was a way of sampling and i tried several churches for change and there was this one baptist church it was a great church nice pastor but every sunday morning was an altar call every sunday morning was a a sermon to the unbeliever to accept christ now that's great but not every sunday you know what i'm saying i remember i was grateful when i could sign for another church party i just got tired of that message because i could anyway stronger food the milk of the word is what jesus did on earth his birth his life his teaching his death his burial resurrection the meat of the word refers to what he's doing now in heaven and on this is all gonna be developed in chapter seven as we go on let's continue with chapter five here the writer says for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe if you're in that category you're babes he's saying what do you mean by the word of righteousness see we only grow on stronger food as long as you're a believer fails to go beyond the basics you'll remain a baby that's what he's saying i'll just insert that how about you are you still babies i don't think so you wouldn't be here tonight but strong meat belongs to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil if we don't know a topic till you teach it that's the other implicit implication here full age the word is telling us which means complete or mature strong meat belongs to the mature all believers are to make proper use of what they know there's two concepts here stronger food and using what you know not just listening and filling notebooks with notes but passing on teaching all of you should be either in or certainly teaching a small group somewhere think about it you use it or you lose it scripture says therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on unto perfection and then he lists a bunch of basics not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works or the faith toward god leave in other words he doesn't leave the baby hood and milk press on to maturity the dangers if they don't they will make an irreversible decision that will permanently keep them in a state of spiritual immaturity and we'll get to that again the foundation what is he talking about these foundation things these are foundational truths repentance from the dead works faith toward god and the doctrine of baptisms laying on of hands the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment of this we will do if god permit okay see we're going to go on to perfection hopefully after these mere basics wait a minute what are those mere basics well two they're in pairs there's three there's six of them listed two are conversion ones repentance from dead works that's a reference to the levitical system which was temporary and came to an end with the death of messiah once the messiah died it should have been over it finally was even the temple was gone that's the that's the predicament of judaism today they know that their the torah teaches that without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins and they have no place they can shed blood they got a problem so they redefined it all in the 90th in the council of the omni later but anyway and the second one was faith toward god now once and for all turning to the messiah pause the comments bear in mind he's talking to jews with it from their basic abcs next one is ceremonial elements baptisms they were used to immersions the critical one was the immersion that we call baptism their their their uh taking an identity with christ the ceremonial the reason it's plural is the ceremonial cleansing the political systems are in view and that's going to be dealt with in in hebrews chapter 9. and so the to a jewish believer baptism marked the final point of their separation from judaism and that's with the chafing under they're thinking about going back big mistake that's what he's trying to try to get across here and the laying on of hands and that's the in the old testament the way of imparting blessings and also pointing someone to an officer work it's also used all through the new testament in very similar ways that's familiar to us and the last couple are eschatological ones resurrection from the dead which of course is an old testament doctrine not just new testament it's in job 19 verse 25. isaiah 26 daniel 12 etc and also the eternal judgment which of course is the great white throne the lake of fire and all that so those are the six foundational beliefs if you have those six you're still a babe according to the writer wow that should be disturbing disturbs me so that leads to a primary riddle comes the primary challenges in the entire new testament is about to confront you you ready for this hebrews 6 verses 4 through 6. here's the way it reads for it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted for the heavenly gift tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy ghost and have tasted the good word of god and the powers of the world to come let's pause there are are those people saved those that were once enlightened have tasted the heavenly gift that were made partakers of the holy ghost are they saviors are these people saved absolutely they have tasted the good word of god and powers of the world to come and by the way it's really that that's a phrase the word iron in world there is singular not plural if it's worlds plural it's worlds when it's singular should be time it's the time domain it's the millennium that it's talking about but that's that's not a big deal here let's go on if those people it's impossible for them if they fall away and renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of god afresh and put him to an open shame wow a lot of people read that and say gee these are believers and if they do these things whatever they are they can never again [Music] repent wow sounds like you that sounds like you lose yourself this is quoted by people good scholars that uh you can lose your salvation this is one of the offsetting texts to the typical right major riddle there weren't these believers they were once enlightened they tasted heavenly gift they were protected holy ghost they've tasted the good word of god and the powers of the coming age millennium they've tasted that boy incidentally not only were they saved doesn't sound like they're babes either not like a little more than that maybe in any case can these readers lose their salvation as a question turn your papers in when you've got your answer how does this passage impact your views of eternal security how do you do you ignore it what do you do what do you do with this if you're in a home bible study and one of your people challenges you what about hebrews 6 what are you gonna say well they maybe not really weren't believers or maybe they were only partial or maybe it's partial rapture or you know you've got all these conjectures there are 16 different interpretations of this passage in the among the commentators or it's impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gifts and were made partakers of the holy ghost and have tasted the good word of god and the power of the word to come if they shall fall away to renew them again into repentance boy apparently they can lose their salvation if they fall away be impossible to renew them again unto repentance seeing that they crucify themselves the son of god afresh and put him to open shame oh boy i know catholics that crucify christ every at every mass they take that's what it's supposed to be in that right and and so on well for your next session oh i want you to read carefully numbers 14 one more time they may have some surprises for you study carefully hebrews chapter 6 that's what we've gone through and i want you for the next time to formulate your own analysis of this passage and explain how it impacts your perspective eternal security and many of you right now are really grateful that you're not taking this course for credit there are 16 different views and we're not going to go through all of them but we will give you the core of the issue and we'll give you at least one answer may not be the right answer we'll give you an answer that seems to have been missed by all the classical commentators that i've seen let's stand for a closing word of prayer

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Length: 53min 26sec (3206 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020