Hebrews (Session 7) Chapter 6

well we're in the seventh session of our exploration of the epistle to the hebrews and we are exploring chapter six tonight and uh as you know the first seven chapters are presenting jesus christ his christology he's the the new and better deliverer had god the god man the first couple chapters then we notice as we go through these 13 chapters that there are five specific warnings and some people see them as interruptions of a theme when in fact the real purpose of the epistle warning number one occurs in the second chapter what he's really doing is addressing all the pillars of judaism he's writing to jewish believers and trying to demonstrate how christ replaces that he's better than the angels those are very highly regarded within the jew in within judaism he's an apostle better than moses it's interesting that the writer speaks of jesus as an apostle that's one of the reasons the writer didn't sign it because he wouldn't want to be guilty of what attorney would call super irrigation intruding on an office because paul saw himself as the apostle of the gentiles not the jews but any case apostle better than moses a leader better than joshua and that's where he picked up the second warning last time and a priest better than aaron as we got to chapter five we're starting to get at the priesthood subject we're going to discover that the priesthood especially particularly the melchizedek priesthood will occupy us from chapter 7 through chapter 10. but last time we were in chapter 5 and we encountered the prelude to the third warning there are five warnings but warning number three is the real bone in the throat for most bible students we're going to be dealing with what is arguably the biggest riddle in the new testament the most troublesome riddle for the christian and it starts in chapter five the the groundwork is set but then is his climaxed in chapter six our subject for tonight later on we're going to talk about the better covenant better sanctuary better sacrifice and then the practical close of the book the hall of faith and so on so that's the quick snapshot of where we are and and there are five warnings all together last time we got introduced to the sec to we to uh in chapter five we had warning number two and got introduced to uh warning number three just beginning and so tonight we're gonna deal with what many people regard as the biggest uh difficulty or problem text in the new testament and so to so that you pick up the tone we'll review a little bit of chapter five that first ten verses a priest and those topics i'm not going to review in detail because we're going to take those up in detail when we get to chapter 7. but from verse 11 to 14 the last four verses of the chapter the writer addresses uh he rebukes the his readers for allowing themselves to stagnate so as we we're not jewish but as we read this we might find the shoe pinching a little bit because what they're guilty of probably most of us are also guilty of and he's setting the stage in those five verses for the warning that's coming in chapter six so that's why i want to review this last few verses the the chapter five dealt with five contracts jesus is a better position he's a better priest the new priesthood is based on a better covenant and the priesthood functions in a better sanctuary and the new priesthood is based on a better sacrifice he's setting the stage for chapter 7 coming but you can't miss as you read the book of hebrews you'll notice better better better better in every way jesus is better than the past whether it's a sacrifice a priesthood whatever jesus each thing that was highly regarded within judaism jesus is one better that's his primary point here but then this rebuke follows it's interesting as the author and i obviously believe it's paul so i may call him paul sometimes but realize that some people will point out that we don't know that for sure but anyway the author develops as he develops the topic of the priesthood he's going to point out that we're leading into stuff that's not for babes that it's strong milk it's for mature in fact he's arguing to go to spiritual maturity so stagnation is what he's accusing his listeners of the failure to progress towards spiritual maturity that's probably the real burden of the entire epistle is to admonish his listeners to move on to to grow not just be comfortable with the milk of the word not moving on to strong food stronger foods and we're going to discover that the real hazard that his listeners face because they're jewish they are considering or being tempted to return to judaism because they're getting persecuted and to avoid the persecution they are attempting to return to judaism and he's pointing out to them that that's not an option so let's just review a few of the last verses last chapter to get warmed up here of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing ye are dull of hearing that's a not a very tactful way to approach us listeners but you guys are dumbbells you're lazy whatever you can fill in the blanks of whom we have many things to say speaking of course of the high priest that he's building the case toward the of whom of course is both melchizedek himself and more precisely the order the priesthood that he represented i'm not going to spend a lot of time on that because we're going to hit that hard when we get to chapter seven but the main point is the writers see being very straightforward with these people that they are in no condition to receive what's coming you know what he's saying in fact you guys aren't ready for chapter seven and what goes because you're lazy you're still wallowing around in first grade arithmetic and we're moving on you see and so he he feels obligated to give them the subsequent teaching but he's trying to highlight that they're not really ready for it he calls them immature backward untaught and dull of hearing i won't ask you for a show of hands of how many who you think's the most immature one here or backward untaught or let me put another way are any of you do any of you feel that you're not immature backward untaught in the doll of hearing we've got a couple okay i'm not going to go there i'll leave it there all right the greek word for dull is northross which really means to have no push in other words lazy sluggish is the concept there moving on to verse 12 for when for when for the time ye ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god and our becomes such as have need of milk not of strong meat so you guys shouldn't be taught now you should be teaching sort of saying you shouldn't be here tonight you should be out leading a bible study sort of that's the flavor you should be you ought to be teachers and you have need for one to teach you again which you have the first principles oracle's got it's gonna be interesting to notice what he lists as the first principles the stuff you should have outgrown we're going to get that in a few in a few verses for now you have such as have need of milk he's criticized nothing wrong with an infinite sucking a nipple on a bottle but if you have a 12 year old son or a 15 year old son and he's walking around the house sucking on the nipple in a bottle it doesn't have quite the charm as a one-year-old might have okay that's sort of the the dramatization here first principles what on earth are the first principles orals god it startled me when i was preparing this most of the first principles are things i would have thought would have been listed under strong means no no no they're going to be you know it's nothing he's accusing them of regression going backwards failing to advance and the problem with these topics you're going to see is that they represent milk not strong meat well if they represent milk i'm really interested to find out what he calls strong meat when we get to chapter seven but that's next time he's saying they need to grow spiritually in order to show ability and teaching instead of being re-taught the same things over and over and over again that may be true of many of us in this room that we sit patiently and in in a sunday sermon or even here on some some of our courses and and and you've had it all before hey it's time to move on it's the idea what are you saying here what do we mean by stronger food see the milk of the word that turmeric is used all through the epistles refers to what jesus christ did on earth his birth his life his teaching his death his burial his resurrection that's all in the gospels we've all been exposed to that we may not have exhausted all its implications but that's uh that's sort of foundational the meat of the word appears to be focusing on what christ is now doing in heaven as we talk about eschatology we talk about the seventh week of daniel the abomination of desolation in the great tribulation armageddon wait wait a minute there's a whole aspect of eschatology what's going on in heaven during all that time and that affects us more than what's going to be on the earth we'll talk more about that later this is all going to be developed in the subsequent chapters finishing up chapter 5 here for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe unskilled from the word of righteousness failing to make practical use of knowledge they possess makes them unskillful you might have when you go home you might take a lot of notes when you get home you put them on your bookshelf you've got all kinds you've been to conferences for years you've got all these notes from the great conferences and so forth great unless you're making use of the that knowledge you're unskillful if you're learning all these exciting things here or in your home bible studies or whatever you need to be passing them on that's really the flavor here as long as a believer fails to apply what he learns he remains a baby do not grow it and by the way the best way to learn the book of the bible is to teach it you really want to learn about genesis or revelation or whatever teach it you stay work a little bit stay ahead of your class not hard to do just keep at it so how about you does any of this apply to you this is a he's talking to the listeners readers of the epistle put your own self there if it fits either use it or you lose it that's the idea the last verse in the chapter 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 full age mature maturity is what you talk about the word there's teleos which means purposeful or complete having achieved the purpose in other words all believers are to make proper use of what they know again use it or lose it okay that gets us to the chapter of interest tonight therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on unto perfection or completion not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward god now you see you need to leave the baby hood and milk and all of that press on to meet maturity and if you don't you're going to make an you're going to he's threatening them that you'll be making an irreversible decision that will permanently keep them in a state of spiritual immaturity ah now that's a little twist here there comes a point where if you don't progress you'll lose the opportunity to progress further and that's disturbing that's disturbing that's going to develop as we go here not laying again the foundation these foundational truths are fundamental to the jewish faith remember he's talking to jews so you put a jewish complexion on these foundational truths of the doctrine of baptism of the laying on of hands of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment these are all doctrines within judaism and this we will do the laying the sun if god permit this going on to perfection they mentioned the previous verse is uh in other words go beyond mere basics and that's the primary imperative of warning number three we're going to see what beliefs are we talking about here there are three pairs two of them have to do with conversion repentance from dead works and that's a reference actually to their jews to the levitical system which incidentally will prove to be temporary it came to the end with the death of the messiah we'll be talking about that in chapter seven more and faith toward god no surprise that's the but what's in view here is the once and for all turning to the messiah a positive commitment to conversion and when a jew got baptized they were used to baptisms but when they baptized in christ that was their way of of dismissing all the past the next two have to do with ceremonial elements baptisms that that is here it's referring to levitical multiple baptisms and that marked the the the the baptism in christ was a should have been the end point of all of those and the other thing is laying on of hands and that was the formal way of or dating someone to an office imparting blessings on the one hand or appointing to some officer working we do that today i have pictures in my office of nan and i having a group down in newport beach laying their hands on us and we elected to go full time into the ministry and all of that and so forth it's a new testament practice not just old testament it's a jewish practice but it's widely used throughout the new testament also and then the last two are eschatological foundations resurrection of the dead that's not a new testament idea that's one of the oldest doctrines of the bible it's the book of job chapter 19 for i know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand on that latter vape on the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh i shall see god and not mine eyes till behold in another so forth so that's in job 19 and isaiah and daniel and elsewhere and of course the eternal judgment it's all through the old testament it's climaxed not with the judgment seat of christ it's climaxed with the great white throne judgment at the end of the millennium but in any case these are the foundational beliefs great white throne judgment lake of fire and all of that so those are foundations and what's interesting these are foundational this is an advanced course this is the preliminary stuff wow that surprised me see i would not have since that but now we get to the primary riddle of the entire new testament in the minds of many major challenge hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 through 6 specifically let's just read it through and you'll see why it troubles so many people text read in english as follows for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted for the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy ghost that have tasted the good word of god and powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucified themselves the son of god afresh and put him to an open shame now the average person reading that if you ask him does that mean you can lose your salvation it sure sounds like it doesn't it that you know this is where it really it usually surfaces to challenge this view that you can't lose your salvation now to get at that you need to know what your salvation is it's got three parts justification is past tense sanctification present tense glorification future sense but romans 8 says you are all three are preserved for you so what do we do with this verse now this is the third of five major warnings let's get it in context the first warning was danger of drifting back in chapter two danger of disobedience in chapter three now this is sort of a collection of a couple of things but progress to maturity the peril of being dull of hearing which sets this up and then this particular warning of which there are 16 at least 16 different views and we'll get at that the next one we'll encounter will be in chapter 10 and the final one in chapter 12. but the they all build one upon the other they are a sequence and they're all interrelated as we'll see we've been through the previous one but now we're going to hit the big one we get through this one the rest are easy we have a unity here all five warnings are a unit they go together they complement each other each builds on the other each intensifies right up to the fifth one now what something else that many people miss the writer of this epistle relies heavily on a specific event that occurs in the book of numbers numbers 13 14. israel's exodus then they get they go through this 11 day journey to kedis barnea have the opportunity to go into the land and get their inheritance and they haven't got the guts to go and we will review tonight numbers 13 14 carefully and we'll show you some things some people usually miss but that's used by the writer of hebrews as the foundational example here the exodus generation was a redeemed people they were redeemed by what blood on the doorpost and on the lentils they're deemed people and this redeemed people failed to heed god's instruction and they were judged for disobedience did they lose their salvation of course not were they sent back to egypt no they died that's not the end of it that's the end of their life but they died without getting their inheritance the land okay all these the entire epistle and certainly all these warnings are written to believers let's understand that right up front many people who've had difficulty with this passage we're dealing with have tried to figure well gee maybe they weren't really believers and these do not represent any chance of loss to the past aspect of salvation nowhere in this epistle is it not taken for granted that they're justified by christ so there's no these this we have the eternal security if i want to take the time to beat this to death we could put here a dozen passages to nail eternal security i'll use john 10 28-29 as one i'll use romans chapter eight the last half of that chapter as another one and we could go on and on and on but that's i think we've covered that enough so far the warnings admonish believers to press on and obtain all that god has promised to the faithful overcomer that's really what it's all about now these warnings represent the very real possibility of the loss of privileges or rewards yes there are things that are at risk yes there are things that are lost not your salvation though why because your salvation was paid for 100 by jesus christ that is your justification but your privileges or rewards for faithfulness will be awarded at the judgment seat of christ and that's where we're headed to the final exam everybody before that judgment seat are saved some are going to fair very well and get crowns and this and that and whatever and others are going to get through that experience by the skin of their teeth they all all of them are saved so what is at stake then what are they going to lose not their salvation rewards of the judgment seat of christ that's what it's really at all about and you can't you can't escape any of this by trying to apply this to other groups this is us even though we're not jewish it still applies to us the burden of the epistle of hebrews is not trying to rescue sinners from going to hell it's bringing sons to glory it's taken for granted the reader's already saved the question is what next so here's the primary riddle verses six through four six the danger of relapse and forfeiting the inheritance is the issue for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have 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 come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves son of god afresh put him to open shame okay were these really believers it's amazing how many commentators try to say well gee maybe they weren't really believers in the first place they were once enlightened they have tasted the heavenly gift they were made partakers of the holy ghost they have tasted the good word of god and the powers of the coming age of the millennium and it's amazing how many commentaries are filled with people trying to see well they were once enlightened but they didn't really get it they've tasted the heavenly gift but they really didn't swallow or something and they were made partakers but maybe not all the way i mean it's it it's really interesting to see learned scholarship try to wrestle out from the direct meaning of the greek can these who have can they lose their salvation that's the thing that will work that will bother you until you really nail this thing so the question that i left you with last time is how does this passage impact your views of eternal security is there a footnote is there a caveat are you saved but is there a parenthesis in your commitment or are you really certain so i asked you to prepare for this session to re-examine numbers 14 and we're going to go through that and study carefully this chapter and formulate your own analysis your students here to have you turn in your papers you explain what you think that passage means to you there's 16 different views that i conceivably could come up with in fact i'm going to show you a 17. one of the alternative they were professing but not real believers that's one approach well they claimed they were per se but they weren't really that's that's one approach you can destroy that by the way others say they were true truly saved but they were permanently lost that's what the armenian would say the calvinists would argue you can't lose it once you got it but you may not have it okay whatever others say the word impossible doesn't really mean impossible maybe it just means difficult okay that's not what it says but that's the view some say that they can repeatedly get lost and re-saved lost and re-saved but there's a limit to that that's another strange discussion and some of them say well this really refers to the old testament sacrifices that's really out in left field some say this whole argument was just hypothetical didn't really apply and there each one of these has variations so i'm not going to take you through 16 variations that's the flavor of it they're very variations of all these okay let's jump in and take a look at the text for it is impossible for a group what group for those who were once enlightened and have tasted for the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy ghost the verse four is the first verse of a three verse sentence this is one long sentence that's gonna unfold before us we have three qualifiers it is impossible with for people that fit these three there there's five all together five qualifiers that were once enlightened what do we enlighten the word is regenerated regenerated and uh it's the same word as used and as in hebrews 10 32 and elsewhere it means regenerated by the holy ghost they were saved you can't escape that there are a few places where that word is not as clear but hebrews 10 32 it nails it and uh okay who tasted the heavenly gift they say tasted well it means he didn't really savor it well i got a problem with that because that in hebrews 2 9 that same word is used of jesus christ who tasted death for every man i don't think he sipped you know i don't think he had a sample he tasted death there's nothing halfway about that these people have tasted same word of the heavenly gift okay it's a real experience is the point hebrews 2 9. the third one they've made partakers of the holy ghost a real partaking that's the medicos and it's used in hebrews 214 it's in hebrews 3 1 and 3 14. it's going to be a very key word through our whole study the metacoin partakers seriously partaking okay we've got two more and i've tasted the good word of god and the powers of the world to come these are the two these are the two remaining part of participle participles now they have seen miracles and signs we learned that in hebrews chapter two they've seen that and they also the powers of the world to come the word world there is eon but when it's singular it means a time dimension a messianic age it isn't when it's plural it means worlds it's a broad term eon means a specific age or or a a period of time and it's alluding to the millennium the powers of the millennium they have understood the glory that awaits christ and his medokoi as partakers in the coming millennial kingdom but they apparently will see have turned their way to go back to the world that's what we're talking about here the people we're seeing here in the epistle are in the same position as the exodus generation at kadesh barnea they've come out of egypt they're saved but they're being confronted to go in and take up take to take their possession their inheritance the land they're refusing to go in let's take a look at this grammatically let's there are five qualifying participles now what is a participle that's a verb a form of a verb that's used to form complex tenses as was loving has loved river it also is can used in in a construction to serve as an adjective don't let the word participle throw you a donaton is the word impossible and it's the people for whom this is impossible are listed were once enlightened have tasted heavenly gift made partakers have tasted the good word of god coming age we don't have to beat this to death clearly though it has in focus people who are really truly saved anybody have a problem so far okay each one of these participles are a verb used as an adjective in the errors tense that means the action is completed they were once enlightened once and for all they have tasted the heavenly gift they have it's completed they have they've made partakers they have it's completed errors means it's done it's a done deal okay there's one when it says the coming age the word coming there is not arrest because it's yet future now then we get to verse six here if they fall away it's impossible for all those that if they fall away to renew them again into repentance seeing they crucify themselves the son of god afresh and put him to open shame to renew them that's that's this is the thorn in the whole thing this group it's impossible to renew them again unto repentance we're going to explore what that means in a minute but first of all let's understand these dependencies there are three of these it's impossible for this group if they are falling away if they're crucifying christ afresh or if they're publicly ridiculing now it turns out that these three if if they fit those three it's impossible connects the impossibility is connected to being restored by repentance by three participles two of these are errorist completed one of these are errors complete action two of these are present tense present active which means these things are continuing from just the greek grammar the impossibility pertains as long as these two stay active once they're all errorist then the impossibility disappears that's just the grammar of it okay okay you got this in mind before i go on okay see the impossibility continues during the present state of crucifying present straight routine the grammar of the passage connotes that the main verb of the sentence the verb to be and its descriptive errors participles that modify it that's in verses 4 and 5 are all limited and defined by the present tense of the participles in verse 6. saying it another way the actions described by the participles occurred during the time that these two are active crucifying to themselves and the public ridiculing after the person stops these two actions at which those times those behaviors become past tense not present tense as soon as they're ceased the impossibility of renewal or restoration no longer applies since they are no longer present tense activities see the present tense activities is what empowers the impossibility grammatically speaking i'm just it's a com it's a long complicated sentence in the greek grammar but we need to understand it once these two present actions cease the impossibility is removed now if the impossibility were described by the author was permanent these two present tense participles would have been errorist they would be described with air as participles so the very grammatical structure is one that is not permanent but temporary that's not obvious when you read it in english it's clear in the rigors of the greek we're not true but i just want to assure you that just grammatically the problem can go away but obviously the author does use present tense participles there and thus he gives hope to those who might otherwise be hopeless the author used air as participles for the verbs crucified ridiculed anybody who fell away for a season could never have been removed to repentance but he didn't use errors to use present tense do you understand what i'm saying does that am i getting across it's a little complicated a little technical but it is a greek sentence and we need to understand the greek grammar to get it across and this is typical of translation problems from greek to english every greek verb has to meet five different conditions mood tense and okay five of them and it often takes three or four or five sentences to translate just one greek verb that's why in trying to render greek into english the translators are often faced with some really difficult decisions and the way they resolve those decisions can be influenced by the point that they're trying to make to you in english you follow me and some of those biases are deliberate and some are accidental in any case the impossibility referred to uh is an impossibility of to being restored to repentance even granted the repentance here the the impossibility has nothing to do with salvation it has to do with being restored to repentance what does that mean most people haven't thought through what that means i'm going to tell you that virtually every major commentator i've met misses they argue this well because they're they understand that it doesn't attack your eternal security they build their case on the greek grammar they haven't looked carefully enough i believe in this issue what the word repentance really means but i'll get to that but in any case this impossibility has to do not with your salvation but it has to do with being restored to repentance and the rest restored to repentance is connected by the verbs occurring only during the time described by the two present tense so even that impossibility is a very limited case but i want to move a little bit and i want you to understand what we mean when we say god is immutable we use that term god is immutable he changes not right he changes not okay we're going to take a look at numbers 14 the israelites there at kadish barnea that's the the model for this whole epistle so angered god that he swore on his own name now that should get arrested right god doesn't run around swearing but several times in the scripture god swears an oath when he does that he is indicating something that is beyond repentance something about which he cannot change his mind you with me so far listen carefully so he he he was so angry that he swore in his own name that they would not enter the promised land god made up his mind and he would not repent it's god's repentance i'm focusing on god would not change his mind all right so i want us to take the time this is so important we're going to re-examine numbers 14 but i'm going to pick it up by taking numbers 13. let's just take a look a very careful look and see what we can learn from katish barnia first question is what do these people have in common shamu shafat igal caleb oshea palti gadil gadi amil sethur these are the son of these various people i won't try to mispronounce their names for you what do these people have in common anybody have a guess these that's right these were the spies these were the 12 guys that were selected to spy out the land right out of these 12 they came from each from a different tribe room and simeon judah is a car right on through the 12 tribes right only two of them inherited their they got their inheritance ten of them did not get the inheritance god had set out for them caleb and o'shea who is becomes joshua we know him as yahushua or yahshua so let's take a look at this numbers 13 these are the names of the men which moses sent to spy out the land moses called oshaya the son of noon yahushua this is where he gets the name you and i are more familiar with and moses sent them to spy out the land of canaan and said to them get you up this way southward and go up into the mountain and see the land what it is and the people that dwelleth therein whether they be strong or weak or few or many like a military commander let's see what are we up against and what the land is that they dwell in whether it be good or bad what cities they be that they dwell in whether in tents or in strongholds and what the land is whether it be fat or lean whether it be wood they're in or not and be of good care good courage and bring of the fruit of the land now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes so they went up and searched the land from the wilderness sin to rehab as the men came to hamath they ascended by the south came into hebron and where hyman shishai talmai the children of anak were now anak were the giants the anakim right now hebron was built seven years before his own an egypt little footnote there and they came into the brook of eshkol and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes now get this one cluster of grapes right but it took two men on a pole to carry it that's some bunch of grapes right they buried between them 200 staff and they brought it uh they brought all the pomegranates into the figs and so forth the place was called the brook s crawl because of the cluster of the grapes with the children of israel cut down from vents this is one of the artists classic artists rendering of them carrying the grapes of eshkol the two guys in a pole and the grapes are the symbol of the minister of tourism of israel today and they call that the grapes the grapes of ishkal but moving on here they returned from searching of the land after 40 days they went and came to moses and aaron and all the congregation of the children of israel into the wilderness of peran and kadesh and brought back word unto them and unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land and they told him and said we came unto the land where the wither thou sentences and surely it floweth with milk and honey and this is the fruit of it good news nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land the cities are walled and are very great and moreover we saw the children of anak there the anakim in the plural the amalekites dwell in the land of the south and the hittites and the jebusites and the amorites dwell in the mountains and the canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of jordan and caleb stilled the people before moses and said let us go up at once and possess it for we are able to overcome it this is caleb talking he's our kind of guy there's probably always someone in the back row saying is always three percent they don't get the word right but the men that went up with him said we be not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we and they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of israel saying the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up its inhabitants thereof and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature they actually were giants some of them and there we saw the giants the word is actually nephilim the sons of anac which come of the giants and we were in our own side as grasshoppers so we were in their sight you and i tend to look at that as an exaggeration when you start studying the nephilim they're not exaggerating my much they're talking nine foot 13 foot kinds of characters that's a little rough to do hand to hand with so the nephilim this is in verse 33 is where the word nephilim actually appears not just genesis 6. well that brings us to genesis chapter 14 and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night and all the children of israel murmured against moses and against aaron and the whole congregation said unto them would god that we had died in the land of egypt they'll get their chance or would god that we had died in this wilderness wherefore hath the lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword better wives and children should be a prey were it not better for us to return to egypt they said to one another let us make a captain and let us return unto egypt then moses and aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of israel this is a dark day dark day and joshua the son of noon and caleb the son of jefuna which were of them that searched the land rent their clothes joshua can have toward their that's a typical gesture in jewishness of of of despair to terror drink your clothes and they speak under all the company the children are saying the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land if the lord delight in us then he will bring us into this land and give it us a land which floweth with milk and honey only rebel not ye against the lord neither fear ye the people of the land for they are bred for us their defense is departed from them and the lord is with us fear them not gutsy guys but it's two guys against ten huh i love what j vernon mcgee says this is why it doesn't believe in committees in church work but all the congregation made stone them with stones wow that's sort of bearing a grudge didn't it and all the congregation made them stone them with stones the glory of the lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of israel that must have got their attention the lord said unto moses how long will this people provoke me and how long will it be are they believe me for all the signs which i have showed among them you know we could stop here and just enumerate the signs you know the ten plagues in egypt the parting of the red sea go on and on and on will smite them with pestilence and disinherit them and it will make of thee a greater nation mighty he's going to start over let's scratch them he did that back in genesis 6 didn't he started the world over with eight people he should do it again i'll smite them with pestilence and i will that's an interesting word people miss that word i will disinherit them they're saved they're going back to egypt they'll die in the wilderness we'll make of the greater nation and mightier than they now i love you this is this is the part you have to read with a real new york jewish accent i can't do that moses said of the lord then the egyptians will hear it for thou brought us up this people and thy might from among them and they will tell it to their inhabitants of this land for they have heard that thou lord art among his people and that thou lord are seen face to face and that thy cloud standeth over them and that thou goes before them by day time in a pillar of a cloud and in a pillar of fire by night see what moses is doing he's appealing the lord's pride now if thou kill all this people as one man then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak saying because the lord was not able to bring this people to the land which he swear unto them therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness this is moses mimicking the propaganda that will accrue if god goes forward with his plan tonight i think it's some of these conversations with moses are absolute riot when you realize what's going on he goes on he said now i beseech you let the power of my lord be great according as thou has spoken saying the lord is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation pardon i beseech thee the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven this people from egypt even until now notice what god does in response to moses prayer and the lord said i have pardoned according to thy word so they're forgiven got it despite all that they're forgiven for this lack of faith i have pardoned according to the word but as truly as i live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the lord but that's an adversative connector however and it's it's not just and it's but i i pardon according to the word but it goes on because all these men which have seen my glory and my miracles which i did in egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me all these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice surely they shall not see the land which i swear unto their fathers god swore which i swear unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it this is a key verse in numbers 14. surely they shall not see the land which i swear unto their fathers neither shall any of them be that provoked me to see it but my servant caleb because he had another spirit in him and hath followed me fully him will i bring into the land where unto he went and his seed shall possess it now the male cats candidates dwell in the valley tomorrow turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the red sea the lord's speaking to moses and aaron saying how long shall i bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me i have heard the murmurings of the children of israel which they murmur against me say to them as truly as i have saith the lord as ye have spoken in my ears so will i do to you your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness in all that were numbered of you according to your whole number from 20 years old and upward would you have murdered against me doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which i swear to make you dwell therein save caleb and the son of jehuna and joshua the son of noon interesting repeated reference to the fact that god swore the presence of that that um inheritance but they're not going to get it i swear interesting but your little ones which you said should fall apart then will i bring in and they shall know the land which ye have despised but as for you your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bury your whoredoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness after the number of days in which he searched the land even forty days each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities even forty years and you shall know my breach of promise i the lord have said i will surely do it unto all this evil generation that are gathered together against me in this wilderness they shall be consumed and there they shall die you know it's interesting you may recall back in chapter three of the epistle of hebrews we touched on this in verse 17 18 19 but with whom was he grieved forty years was it not with them that sinned whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believe not but so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief again i want you to pick up unto whom swear he that they should not enter this ability that this commitment they should be dispossessed is an oath that god made and he's not going to change his mind he will not repent of that oath are you with me so far let's continue to finish up numbers here and the men which moses said to search the land who returned made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up slander upon the land even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land died by the plague before the lord so the other 10 spies died right there didn't take 40 years for them but joshua and the son of noon and caleb the son of jehunah which were of the men that went to search the land they lived still and moses told these things unto all the people of israel the people mourn greatly they rose up early in the morning and got them up to the top of mountain saying lo we be here and we will go up again to the place which the lord hath promised for we have sinned now see the point is the people changed their mind they repented they wanted to go in but it was too late now got the picture the people changed their mind god didn't god is the one that didn't repent because he swore an oath so the people suffered defeat they you know they went on they they went ahead by the way and went in and got clobbered he told them not to they went anyway and got clobbered god is jealous about sharing his glory those to whom he shows great and mighty works and his glory should take heed now they were accountable for all these things they saw if they were accountable for the things they saw how much more we or let's say the right the epistle to hebrews these people had seen much accountable even more but here's the point that everybody seems to miss in my view and i'm a you know this is not a common view so this could be wrong you have to wait yourselves the impossibility of repentance in hebrews chapter 6 verse 6 may not be on the individual's part it's on god's part god's the one that cannot repent he's sworn oath let's it's not the individuals later on in chapter 12 of hebrews we're going to find the hebrews writer saying lest there be any fornicator profane person as esau he's going to talk about esau as a reference who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright and ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance they were talking about esau he found no place of repentance he repented himself he was sorry he sold the birthright it's too late and he tried to get jacob to repent and he couldn't it's already done it's a done deal esau found no place of repentance i'm pointing out to you that the writer to hebrews regards the repentance not as you and i we always think of a sinner repenting no repentance means a change of mind and here the source of the blessing is the one that could not repent jacob in this sense god in the other case and uh metanoia a change of mind it it's it's a one appearance of repentance it's interesting in uh genesis 2 27 and isaac's father said who art thou remember when when this is when uh uh uh jacob had tricked isaac and gotten the blessing by the uh chicanery isaac his father sent him who art thou he said i'm my son my firstborn he saw him isaac trembled very exceedingly because he realized he'd been cheated and said who where is he the take of the venison and brought it me i've eaten of all before thou camest and have blessed him yay and he shall be blessed when esau heard the words of his father he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry and said unto his father bless me even me also my father and he said thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing is it is he not rightly named jacob that which means supplanter for he has to planted me these two times he took away my birthright and behold now he's taking away my blessing he said hast thou not reserved a blessing for me isaac answered he said behold i have made him thy lord all his brethren have i given him for servants with corn and wine have i sustained him and what shall i do now for thee my son jesus said unto his father hast thou but one blessing my father blessed me even me also my father my father and he saw lifted up his voice and wept and isaac's father answered and said to him behold thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth and thy due of heaven from above and by thy sword shalt thou live and shall serve thy brother and it shall come to pass that when thou shalt have dominion that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck wow back to romans 6 let's finish up the chapter for the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth worms meat for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from god but that which beareth thorns and obviously the stuff that grows properly is a blessing but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned uh-oh see people expect rain and to bring forth herbs and and the result is but the result of fruitlessness will be rejection and disapproval that's exactly what's being said up here the timing for this approval or rejection will be at the judgment seat of christ that's the real subject of this whole epistle whose end is to be burned and with that we'll turn a quick refresh on first corinthians 3. important passage first corinthians 3 we'll start about verse 8 and carry it to the end to 10. now he that planteth and he that watereth are one every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are laborers together with god ye are god's husbandry ye are god's building according to the grace of god which is given unto me a wise master builder i i have laid the foundation and another build up thereon but let every man take heed how he built thereon for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is christ jesus christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones would hate stubble there's two different groups there every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it's not the guy getting burned it's his work that's being put to the test and the the the the works are clustered into two categories gold silver precious stones they're inflammable wood hay stubble are flammable so every man's work will be put into the fire and if it survives that's good if it doesn't it's going to be burned every man's work shall be made manifest for the day that is the day of judgment seat of christ shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire the guy isn't being burned up his word his work is being tested so then the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is not the man his work what sort it is you get the difference don't misunderstand here if any man's work abide which he hath built thereon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so is by fire key verse because it discerns the difference between being saved and the rewards that you get for faithfulness even the ones that fail to be faithful are still saved but they miss the opportunity to get rewarded with all kinds of neat things the work is being tested by fire when they say baptism by fire that's what they're talking about the work's being tested here work shall be burned but he himself shall be saved even if he loses he himself shall be saved yet as by fire and it was like like a refugee from like these people in california went to work one day came home and found their house burned to the ground everything they owned all their family pictures all the gone they're saying they didn't get burned they weren't in the fire but they lost everything they this he'd be saved yet so as by fire like being a refugee from a fire okay these are believers their justification is not at issue judgment not mercy is going to emanate from the bema seed we're not looking for mercy there we're looking for judgment it's an appraisal of work and with a just recompense of reward for works that'd be positive and negative as appropriate and there's lots of scriptures on this it's worth your digging into that and getting go through the notes and studying them let's continue to finish the chapter but beloved we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak for god is not unrighteous to forget your work and your labor of love which ye have shown toward his name in that ye administered to the saints and do minister see these are things that accompany salvation they're not the basis of salvation your works are not a basis of your salvation christ's work is 100 of it but there are works that can accompany it in terms of blessings believers who press on to maturity receive god's blessing for rewards for the messianic kingdom because they have lived a useful life for the lord i love the way dan often asks group what have you done for christ's sake sounds a little irreverent but it gets people's attention what have you done for christ's sake we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope and even unto the end that you be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises see there is more to have than just entry into heaven your justification stamps your passport for entry great but there's more to it available if you have the patience to inherit the promises and there are many which promises are optional check it out check the overcomer the kinds of things that they overcome there's seven different promises of the overcomers the book of revelation chapters two and three and when god made promise to abraham because he could swear by no greater he swear by himself here's god swearing again interesting saying surely blessing i will bless thee and multiplying i'll multiply thee so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise he could swear by no greater the famous passage in genesis 12 verses 2 and 3 we think that's the shield that's kept judgment on america because of god's swearing this oath abraham exercised 25 years of patient endurance to get the promise of isaac for men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them and end of all strife wherein god willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed by an oath interesting how the writer hammers this here is that by confirming it with an oath it makes that unchangeable and god has sworn that if they don't do this and that they won't inherit oath renders it immutable unchangeable not opening to it's not open to repentance that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for god to lie that he might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that was set before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast which entereth unto that within the veil abraham was 75 years old god promised him a son and the promise contained the content of the covenant the promise was an oath given to them when abraham was 99 years old whether the forerunner is for us entered even jesus made a high priest forever after the order of melchizedek this last verse in chapter six now is the bridge from all of this to chapter seven we're going to enter into the strong meat we're going to enter into what on earth is this the big deal with jesus as a high priest and so this this is where he picks up where he left off in verse 10 of chapter five this whole episode the whole warning this whole third warning has been the subject of our digression today now it's interesting that he previously spent the previous five verses four verses 11 12 13 14 4 verses as why the readers were not ready to understand what we're going to get into the next session so next session i want you to study chapter seven very carefully and so he's he's urging every one of us to press on to maturity and he's now ready that writer is now ready to expound on what on earth is involved with the melchizedekian order the order of melchizedek and the chapter we're going to discover when we get into chapter 7 by the way he's speaking about the priests here but he makes an interesting remark that i caught when i was preparing for the next session i thought i should include that here for those priests that were made without an old speaking of the aaronic priests but this with an oath by him that said unto him the lord swear and will not repent thou art a priest forever after the order come israel it's interesting how all through the scripture we find the lord swearing an oath as foreclosing any alternatives by god doing that he eliminates any possibility to change his mind and that may be what verse six may also going it's impossible to renew them to repentance not the individual god to change his mind about their inheriting if they continue that way it's not their salvation's lost it's their inheritance that's at issue so i thought you might find that interesting the lord swear and will not repent contrasting the aaronic priests with the kingdom of the everlasting priest and so they just mind okay next session we're going to develop the ultimate priesthood in chapter 7 that'll that theme will endure all the way to 10 in various ways and this is the very material that you were not strong enough to receive until now okay so it stands for closing word of prayer

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Length: 63min 2sec (3782 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020