{"id":19135,"date":"2017-01-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-044\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:17:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:17:39","slug":"soteriology-044","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-044\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 044"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[103],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19135","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-hebrews","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 044","sermon_date":"20170115","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":20062,"sermon_slides":20063,"sermon_mp3":20064,"sermon_id":"11517106517","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":103,"chapter_and_verse":"2:1-4","sermon_transcript":"

Andy Woods<\/p>\nSoteriology 44, Hebrews 2:1-4\n\nJanuary 15, 2017\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for today and another opportunity to look into Your truth and go over some passages that are very perplexing to people. I just pray that Your Spirit would be here illuminating us, helping us understand these things so we can better live for you, better serve you, better defend and explain truth.\u00a0 We ask that You\u2019ll do this work, we lift this up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said Amen.\n\nAs you know we spent a lot of time our last three sessions on the book of Hebrews, chapter 6.\u00a0 And what I\u2019d like to do and I don\u2019t think I can do it all in this session, we\u2019ll just continue on where we left off next week, is I don\u2019t want to just leave you with Hebrews 6 and how to understand it, I want to leave you with how to understand the five major warning passages in Hebrews, because the book of Hebrews doesn\u2019t just have one warning passage.\u00a0 I went through, I think what was the hardest one but it\u2019s got four others.\u00a0 And now that you sort of understand the book of Hebrews and what\u2019s going on there I think understanding the other warning passages will be easier.\n\nBut just to real quickly orient you to the book of Hebrews, the nation of Israel by the time the book of Hebrews was written is under the discipline of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be meted out a few years into the future in the events of A.D.\u00a0 70 where Rome will come and destroy the city and the sanctuary.\u00a0 And ever since the nation of Israel in the first century rejected Christ, based on their own covenant, they were put under a curse.\u00a0 The curse is discipline from God.\u00a0 And you see the terms of discipline spelled out in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, and this is why when the church is born on the day of Pentecost the Apostle Peter, a Jew, stands up and speaks to fellow Jews and says in Acts 2:40, \u201cAnd with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, \u2018Be saved from this perverse generation!\u201d\u2019 So what perverse generation are we talking about?\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about first century Israel.\n\nSo what Peter is calling people to do as the church is born is come out of that corrupt nation that is under the disciplinary hand of God because of their unbelief and identify with this new man called the church.\u00a0 And of course the way you\u2019re saved (as we all know) is by faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 But then when you look at Acts 2:41 there\u2019s a sign of that salvation and it says, \u201cSo then, those who had received his word were\u201d what? \u201cwere baptized\u2026\u201d\u00a0 So baptism is really an outward symbol of an inward reality; that\u2019s what it is.\u00a0 Baptism, as you know, doesn\u2019t save you but once they were publicly baptized they were identifying with the new church and in the process publicly saying that first century Israel was wrong in rejecting Christ.\n\nSo a few decades pass and the book of Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians, and it says in Hebrews 3:1, \u201cTherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;\u201d when he makes that statement \u201cour confession\u201d I think he\u2019s talking about water baptism because water baptism is what publicly identified you as somebody that was at the center with what the nation of Israel had done.\u00a0 In other words, when you got water baptized as a Jewish Christian\u2026 and you have to understand that the whole church is Jewish up until Acts 10, finally a Gentile gets saved, a guy named Cornelius, and the Gentiles really don\u2019t start to outnumber the Jews in the church until Paul\u2019s first missionary journey beginning in Acts 13.\n\nSo when you as a Jewish Christian trusted in Christ and were water baptized you were sending a message to the nation of Israel that you had it wrong and the new church, which has just started, has it right.\u00a0 So what do you think the unbelieving Jews did?\u00a0 Did they just sit there and let these new converts do whatever they wanted?\u00a0 No, they put on a relentless wave of persecution, getting them to come back to Judaism.\u00a0 And by the time the book of Hebrews is written you are now on your second generation of Jewish Christians.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because if you look at Hebrews 2:3 it describes a chain. It says in the middle of the verse, \u201cAfter it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.\u201d\n\nSo notice first of all \u201cthe Lord,\u201d secondly \u201cthose who heard Him,\u201d those would be the who?\u00a0 The apostles, the original apostles.\u00a0 So the Lord to the apostles and then the message traveled \u201cto us\u201d see that, that\u2019s a generation after the apostles.\u00a0 And verse 4 indicates that as the message traveled from the apostles to the second generation it was confirmed through signs and wonders.\u00a0 [Hebrews 4:2, \u201cGod also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.\u201d]\n\nSo you put this together and you\u2019re dealing with the second generation.\u00a0 And that\u2019s one of the reasons people date this book in the 60\u2019s.\u00a0 And you know the first generation of dissenters, the apostolic generation, most of whom went to their deaths for the cause of Christ, was much stronger than the second generation.\u00a0 And this is the problem with second generation Christians and it\u2019s also the problem with the second generation that gets hold of a Christian institution, which is largely what\u2019s happening in our own seminaries today, they forget the price that was paid to get that seminary or that school off the ground.\u00a0 And it\u2019s like that with inheritors of a business, they don\u2019t understand the sweat and the sacrifice that went into starting the business so they don\u2019t have the same mindset as the first generation.\n\nSo the second generation is usually weaker than the first and this is what you have going on in Jewish Christianity.\u00a0 And the audience is really thinking about going back into Judaism; I mean, what\u2019s the harm to just slip into a few feast days and temple rituals to get all this persecution from these unbelieving Jews off my back.\u00a0 And at the very bottom of the screen, \u00a0I don\u2019t have time to look at every verse, you can look those up on your own, it\u2019s very clear that the temple was still standing at this point.\u00a0 [Hebrews 8:4, 13; 9:6; 10:1-2; 13:10]\u00a0 So the temple wouldn\u2019t be destroyed for another seven or eight years, and so this temptation to return to the temple was very much a reality.\n\nSo that is the background of the book of Hebrews.\u00a0 The author of the book of Hebrews, whoever he was, writes an encouragement and a motivation for the Hebrew Christian audience not to lapse backwards into Judaism.\u00a0 And what he does is he skillfully explains that what they already have in Jesus is superior and higher than anything they could ever experience in Judaism.\u00a0 So Judaism was just a shadow pointing towards the coming reality.\u00a0 The reality is here in Jesus; you have the highest form of revelation already so don\u2019t slip back into Judaism.\n\nAnd the author of the book of Hebrews writes this message: The superiority of the full revelation of Christ in comparison to Old Testament Judaism is shown through demonstrating that Christ is higher or superior to every major vestige of Judaism.\u00a0 So he\u2019s not saying Judaism is bad; what he uses is the word better, the better revelation has come.\n\nThe author of Hebrews, whoever he was, was a master logician or philosopher.\u00a0 That\u2019s why a lot of people are persuaded that maybe Apollos, you know, the very erudite debater that we read about in the book of Acts, could have been the writer.\u00a0 Other people say it was Paul, other people say it was Barnabas. We don\u2019t really know who it was but whoever he was knew the Old Testament cold and he knew how to argue his case.\n\nSo what he does in verses 1-3 of chapter 1 is he says look at Christ\u2019s attributes, look at how high He is.\u00a0 And then you get to chapter 1 verse 4 all the way through the end of chapter 2 and he says Jesus is higher than the angels.\u00a0 Now what you have to understand is in Judaism angels are a big deal because the revelation of God was handed down to people through angels.\u00a0 Remember Daniel received the prophecy of the seventy weeks through the angel Gabriel.\u00a0 You remember that\u00a0 according to the book of Galatians the Law of God was mediated from Mount Sinai through angels.\u00a0 So angels were messengers and what the author is saying is Jesus is higher than the angels, meaning that Jesus is higher than any Old Testament form of revelation.\n\nAnd then if that weren\u2019t enough, beginning in chapter 3, verse 1, through almost the end of chapter 4 he says Jesus is higher than Moses.\u00a0 And you have to understand that to the Jewish mind that has been under the Law of God for 1500 years the Law was everything.\u00a0 The Law told\u00a0 you what to eat, it even told you if your animal ran across the yard and wrecked the neighbor\u2019s fence how that was supposed to be handled.\u00a0 I mean, the Law governed every single dimension of your life.\u00a0 And of course, we know the Law came through Moses.\u00a0 So when the writer says Jesus is higher than Moses he\u2019s saying Jesus is higher than any form of revelation in the Law that you could ever find.\n\nAnd if that weren\u2019t enough, beginning in chapter 4, verse 14 through chapter 10 verse 18 he says Jesus is higher than Aaron.\u00a0 Now who did the priesthood come to Israel through?\u00a0 Through the high priest Aaron.\u00a0 So if he can show that Jesus is higher than Aaron he can show that Jesus is higher than the whole Old Testament sacrificial system that they had known for one thousand five hundred years.\n\nAnd the reason that Jesus is higher than Aaron is because Jesus is orchestrating today a priesthood not after the order of Aaron but after the order or Melchizedek and this is why Jesus was not born from the tribe of Levi; the priests all came from Levi, right? That\u2019s where we get the word Leviticus from, Levi. \u00a0Jesus was born through which tribe?\u00a0 Judah.\u00a0 So obviously Christ\u2019s priesthood is a lot higher than Aaron\u2019s priesthood.\n\nThen you get to chapter 10 verse 18 and it says, \u201cTherefore\u201d and whenever we see the word \u201ctherefore\u201d in the Bible we ask what is the word therefore what? There for?\u00a0\u00a0 And that changes us out of doctrine into application so the rest of the book of Hebrews is basically application.\n\nSo if you\u2019re into logic, if you\u2019re into major premise\/minor premise\/conclusion, the book of Hebrews is for you because that\u2019s what it is; it\u2019s an erudite piece of logic starting with a simple premise and proceeding to a conclusion that they already have the highest form of revelation in Christ.\u00a0 So going back to the Old Testament system is not going to help them, even though they\u2019re being persecuted to do so.\n\nNow if that weren\u2019t enough, and this is where the whole debate of eternal security comes in, the author interrupts his train of thought five times; there are five parenthetical breaks where it\u2019s almost like something comes over him and he stops what he\u2019s saying and gives to the audience a very severe warning.\u00a0 And then when the warning is over he gets right back on the rabbit trail and completes his thought and this happens five times in the book of Hebrews.\u00a0 You have the warning against drifting, warning against disobedience, now the third one we\u2019ve already spent some time with, the warning against immaturity; then in chapter 10 you have the warning against despising and then finally you have the warning against denying the truth.\u00a0 So drifting, disobedience, immaturity, I couldn\u2019t find a \u201cd\u201d for immaturity, sorry, I guess I\u2019m not Baptist enough, Baptist you\u2019ve got to have everything kind of rhyming like that, right? And I love Baptists so don\u2019t get mad at me if you\u2019re a Baptist.\u00a0 By the way, the first church I pastored was an American Baptist Church, that\u2019s in the interest of full disclosure there, but you know, you make a joke, people start sending you letters, what do you have against Baptists?\u00a0 Nothing, I love Baptists, I\u2019m just saying I\u2019m not as good as they are with homiletical devices. All right, let\u2019s get off that.\n\nDrifting, disobedience, immaturity, despising, denying, see that?\u00a0 So the view that I\u2019ve tried to sell you on (if I could put it that way) is the loss of blessings view.\u00a0 The paradigm of the book is which event?\u00a0 Kadesh-barnea, and that\u2019s where they got to the southern border of Israel and they looked into the land and what did they see in the land?\u00a0 Giants!\u00a0 So the author is reaching back into their history to something that they knew and he\u2019s saying just as that generation forfeited a blessing if you second generation Hebrew Christians capitulate to persecution and go back into the institutions of Judaism you\u2019re going to forfeit a blessing.\u00a0 He\u2019s not saying you\u2019re going to hell (as I\u2019ve tried to explain), what he\u2019s saying is there\u2019s a blessing that flows from your justification that you will be permanently deprived of.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve tried to make the case that that blessing that they\u2019re going to be deprived of is growth because you cannot grow the way you\u2019re supposed to do \u201cin Christ\u201d if you cut yourself off from New Testament revelation.\n\nAnd this is the kind of a problem that I\u2019m seeing in Christendom today is people are becoming very interested in the feasts, the rituals of Judaism, and at first glance I\u2019m sort of in favor of that because it helps\u2026 the Old Testament the better you understand it helps explain the New Testament.\u00a0 The problem that I\u2019m seeing is that in some of these groups they leave people in the Old Testament.\u00a0 I\u2019ve actually quizzed people, just in private conversation that are involved in some of these types of groups, and they can tell you all kinds of information about Old Testament feasts and it\u2019s all wonderful to know all that but it\u2019s almost like you get into New Testament, you get into the teachings of Paul and there\u2019s like massive knowledge gaps.\u00a0 Well, the reality of the situation is you cannot mature in Christ with knowledge gaps of New Testament revelation.\u00a0 And this is what the author is afraid of with this audience, they\u2019re going to go back into this system, they\u2019re still Christians, they\u2019re still saved but they\u2019re shutting themselves off from the diet that they need to grow correctly.\u00a0 It\u2019s like omitting key food groups if you will, you know, in your physical diet, you can\u2019t mature correctly.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what the author is afraid of.\n\nSo the author\u2019s points throughout this book are (A) the Exodus generation was saved but forfeited a blessing; (B) the same is going on with the Hebrews, they\u2019re saved but if they slip back into Judaism they\u2019re going to forfeit a blessing, just like the Kadesh-barnea generation forfeited a blessing.\u00a0 So do you all kind of see the background of the book here.\u00a0 And he\u2019s trying to prevent this from happening to them by persuading them that they already have the full revelation of Christ.\u00a0 And (B), through these warning passages if\u00a0 you do go back into Judaism there\u2019s going to be a penalty; a penalty gets assessed at some point.\n\nAnd the big debate is well, what is the penalty, is it they\u2019re going to go to hell?\u00a0 Calvinism, they never had salvation.\u00a0 Arminianism, they lost salvation.\u00a0 No, neither of those views is right; they\u2019re going to forfeit a blessing they could have had flowing from their justification, which is growth in Christ.\n\nSo with that in mind, take a look, if you could, at Hebrews 2:1-4 and I just want to show you briefly how all five warning passages function the same way.\u00a0 They\u2019re all saying basically the same thing that the big warning passage that we spent some time studying in Hebrews 6 is saying.\u00a0 So notice if you will Hebrews 2:1-4, this is warning passage number 1.\u00a0 By the way, what\u2019s he been talking about at the end of chapter 1?\u00a0 Verse 13, he\u2019s been talking about angels because he\u2019s showing that Jesus is higher than the angels.\u00a0 [Hebrews 10:13, \u201cBut to which of the angels has He ever said, \u2018SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET \u2018?]\n\nThen all of a sudden, for whatever reason the Spirit\u2019s prompting, he quits talking about angels, he interjects a severe warning against drifting, and then once he finishes that, after verse 4 what does he start talking about again, verse 5?\u00a0\u00a0 Angels, he just kind of picks up where he left off, so digressions.\u00a0 This happens five times.\n\nSo notice this, the first warning passage, Hebrews 2:1-4, \u201cFor this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not\u201d what? \u201cdrift away from it.<\/em> [2] For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, [3] how will we escape if we\u201d what? \u201cneglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, [4] God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His\u201d what? \u201cHis own will.\u201d\u00a0 Now you see the word \u201cwe\u201d there; it\u2019s mentioned in verse 1, it\u2019s mentioned in verse 3.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 It means the author is identifying with the spiritual state of the audience which would mean the audience is saved or unsaved?\u00a0 Saved, very clearly!\u00a0 You see the word \u201cneglect,\u201d verse 3?\u00a0 \u201cHow shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation.\u201d\u00a0 How can you neglect a salvation that you don\u2019t already possess.\u00a0 It\u2019 s like someone saying you\u2019re neglecting your wife, well that must mean I\u2019m married, right?\u00a0 I can\u2019t neglect my wife unless I have a wife to neglect.\n\nSo what the author is doing, can I give you a fancy Latin word? He\u2019s engaging in what is called an\u00a0 a fortiori<\/em> argument, an a fortiori<\/em> argument is an argument from the lesser to the greater. \u00a0In other words, if the lesser is true then the greater must be true.\u00a0 And the author uses a fortiori<\/em> reasoning all the way through the book of Hebrews and his point is this: if drifting from the old covenant Judaism was punishable\u2026 and by the way, when the Jews drifted away from the covenant God gave them did God discipline them?\u00a0 Of course, the whole Old Testament is filled with that history.\u00a0 And this is written to a Jewish audience and so they remember the scattering by the Assyrians of the northern kingdom in 722 B.C.\u00a0 They remember what we\u2019re studying on Sunday morning, the events of the book of Daniel and Ezekiel, where the Jews went into captivity, the southern kingdom in 586 B.C.\n\nSo they all knew that God disciplines for drifting. So that\u2019s your minor premise.\u00a0 If drifting away from old covenant Judaism was punishable, how much more\u2026 see the lesser to the greater, how much more will God not punish, or perhaps a better word is discipline, for moving away from what?\u00a0 The full revelation of Christ.\u00a0 In other words, if God disciplined His own people for moving away from a lesser revelation, do you think, you Hebrew Christians, that God is going to do anything less if you drift way from a completed revelation in Jesus Christ?\n\nNow it doesn\u2019t say hell here, does it?\u00a0 So what\u2019s the punishment?\u00a0 Well, the nation of Israel went into discipline in the Old Testament; did they ever stop being God\u2019s special people?\u00a0 They never did.\u00a0 So in the same way if the Hebrew Christians move away from the full revelation of Christ and go back into the institutions of Judaism and act like the New Testament never happened, which is what they\u2019re being tempted to do.\u00a0 Does not the end of the book, Hebrews 12:5-11 say whom the Lord loves the Lord what? Chastens; they\u2019re going to go through the same type of chastening as well. [Hebrews 12:5-11, \u201cand you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,\n\u2018MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; [6] \u00a0 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.\u2019 [7] It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his<\/em> father does not discipline? [8] But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. \u00a0[9] Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? [10] For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us<\/em> for our<\/em> good, so that we may share His holiness. \u00a0[11] All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.\u201d]\n\nIn fact, it might even be more severe because they had, not a partial revelation, they had the full revelation.\u00a0 And this is especially true since the message had been confirmed as it travelled from the Lord to the apostles, to the second generation through confirmatory what?\u00a0\u00a0 Signs and wonders that are described in verse 4.\u00a0 They not only had the full revelation of the New Testament, they had the signs and wonders, whatever those were, that confirmed it.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t want to get too far into the signs and wonders debate but the reality of the situation is miracles in the Bible will cluster around five time periods.\u00a0 They cluster around time periods when God is doing something totally new.\u00a0 For example, in the time of Moses you\u2019ll see rampant miracles because God is raising up something, a brand new revelation called the Law.\u00a0 If you go to the stories of Elijah and Elisha you\u2019ll see rampant miracles clustered around that time period because God is doing something new, he\u2019s raising up the office of the prophet to rebuke wayward kings; that\u2019s a brand new office.\n\nYou get into the New Testament and you\u2019ll see rampant signs or wonders around the ministry of\u00a0 our Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus is offering what to national Israel, on a silver platter?\u00a0 The kingdom.\u00a0 Then as you get into early Acts you\u2019ll see rampant signs and wonders because God is raising up a new man called the church.\u00a0 And in fact, Paul, who raised people from the dead,\u00a0 (that\u2019s quite a miracle, isn\u2019t it) Eutychus\u2026 Paul preached a little long one time and Eutychus fell asleep, he fell off a second story building, out of the window sill, hit the ground and died; Paul went down there and raised him from the dead, which is very gracious of Paul, he could have been mad that the guy wasn\u2019t paying attention to his sermon.\u00a0 But he actually raised this guy from the dead in Troas.\u00a0 Now you get to the end of Paul\u2019s life and you go to 2 Timothy 4:20, this is the last thing Paul said or wrote, A.D. 67, just prior to his death, he says, \u201cErastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left\u201d what? \u201csick at Miletus.\u201d\u00a0 This is the guy that raised Eutychus from the dead saying well, regarding Erastus I just left him sick.\n\nSo what is happening, I believe, is you have a gradual waning away or petering out of apostolic signs and wonders as the apostolic age is coming to an end.\u00a0 And today everybody is into a signs and wonders movement, if you get into certain charismatic or Pentecostal circles they talk over and over again about a signs and wonders movement that\u2019s on the horizon.\u00a0 And that has always bothered me because according to the Bible what\u2019s the next signs and wonders movement coming from?\u00a0 The antichrist, who will display miracles through counterfeit signs and wonders.\n\nSo we\u2019ve had four eras where God has worked miracles to authenticate something new and the next signs and wonders movement is on the horizon.\u00a0 And these Hebrews, what did they have?\u00a0 They had not just the full revelation of Christ, they had it confirmed to them as it transferred from the apostles to them through signs and wonders.\u00a0 Now the warning here is don\u2019t drift away from this because God will not send you to hell but discipline you just like He disciplined His chosen people.\n\nBefore I leave the signs and wonders thing let me just make one other qualifying statement.\u00a0 People say well do you believe that God can do signs and wonders today and my answer to that is yes; if I didn\u2019t believe that I wouldn\u2019t pray for people to get well.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the difference\u2014today when God does a sign or wonder if He chooses to He does not do it indirectly through a person, like an apostle, He does it directly from God to man.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So the signs and the wonders coming through the works of the apostles were basically what I would consider temporary occurrences and those passed away with the end of the apostolic age.\u00a0 But when you talk like this people kind of get nervous and they think you\u2019re against God doing any sign or wonder today and I think the difference is God does them today with less regularity in my opinion.\u00a0 And when He does it He does it directly Himself rather than indirectly, through someone that\u2019s a so-called apostle.\n\nSo we have a lot of people today that are calling themselves apostles.\u00a0 In my classes at CBS one of the things I do is I give the students a chance to introduce themselves right at the beginning of a class and I\u2019m kind of sneaky because as they introduce themselves I can figure out where they\u2019re at on the theological map and a lot of them will introduce themselves as\u00a0 prophet so and so, prophetess so and so, I\u2019m an apostle, these kind of things and these ideas are very big in the Pentecostal church, particularly as you get into African-American communities these ideas are very, very popular and big.\u00a0 It\u2019s sometimes how people build status for themselves, you know, you call yourself an apostle so people have to submit to your authority, this kind of thing.\n\nWell, the fact of the matter is the early church laid down the qualifications for an apostle in Acts 1, when they were substituting or picking a replacement for Judas and they picked Matthias and the qualifications are laid down, you have to have been with the ministry of Christ as an eyewitness from the very beginning.\u00a0 So the only people that are apostles in the technical way I\u2019m describing it here are those that were on the ground floor, if you will, with the ministry of Christ.\u00a0 And so you\u2019ll notice that your Bible was either written by one of the twelve original eyewitnesses or in the case of people like Mark or Luke or Paul it was written by people who had a close association with one of the original twelve.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the test for canonicity we call apostolicity, which means that there are no new books of the Bible being written today because the apostolic generation is gone.\n\nThere are no apostles today so when people call themselves an apostle and they want that title I usually say man, you really look good for your age, I mean certainly you have some diet and exercise tips for me because you ought to be about 2,000\u00a0 years old by now and you look like a 20 year old or 30 year old.\u00a0 So I kind of say that tongue in cheek but\u2026 anyway, that\u2019s kind of an excurses into the signs and wonders.\u00a0 We can take some questions on that at the end as I\u2019m sure some of you might have some questions on that but I didn\u2019t even plan on going into that, I just want people to understand that as the message traveled from the apostles to the second generation God confirmed it through signs and wonders which is the pattern of God in the sense that He gives confirmatory signs and wonders when He\u2019s doing something totally new or brand new in terms of new revelation.\u00a0 And if the Jewish drifting away from Old Testament revelation brought discipline from God how much more will He discipline you Hebrews if you drift away?\u00a0\u00a0 So this is a passage about divine discipline, it\u2019s not a passage about loss of salvation.\n\nAnd let me, if I can, squeeze in one more warning passage and let\u2019s go over to chapter 3, verse 7; this is a warning against what?\u00a0 Disobedience.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice beginning in Hebrews 3:6 it says, \u201cbut Christ was faithful as a Son over His house\u2014\u201d now what he\u2019s doing here is he\u2019s showing that Jesus is no longer higher than the angels but now He\u2019s higher than who?\u00a0 Moses, verse 5, you\u2019ll see Moses\u2019 name mentioned.\u00a0 [Hebrews 3:5, \u201cNow Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.\u201d]\n\nVerse 6, \u201dbut Christ was faithful<\/em> as a Son over His house-- whose house we are,\u201d look at this, \u201cif we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.\u201d\u00a0 See the \u201cif\u201d there?\u00a0 What\u2019s the writer worried about?\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019re not going to hold fast to new revelation, so he opens the possibility maybe they will, maybe they won\u2019t.\u00a0 So that contingency interrupts his train of thought and he gives this extended warning against disobedience in chapter 3, verse 17 through chapter 4 verse 13 and once he\u2019s finished with that he gets right back on the bunny trail and completes his logical thought process.\u00a0 So let me kind of show you this warning passage.\u00a0 Verse 6, \u201cif\u201d assumes the possibility that they would not.\n\nNow notice verses 7-11, where God says He was angry with that generation.\u00a0 [Hebrews 3:7-11, \u201cTherefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, \u201cTODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, [8] DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, [9] WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me<\/em> BY TESTING Me,<\/em>\u00a0AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. [10] THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, \u2018THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS\u2019; [11] AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, \u2018THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 It\u2019s a citation from Psalm 95, God says I was angry with that generation and what generation is He talking about there?\u00a0 The Kadesh-barnea generation.\u00a0 So Psalm 95 goes back, it\u2019s an allusion backwards to Numbers 13 and 14 and the debacle that took place there.\n\nAnd then after he explains that debacle, verses 12-19, he starts to explain the temporal blessings that they will miss out on if they depart from the full revelation of Christ.\u00a0 Verse 12 you\u2019ll experience a departure from God, it doesn\u2019t mean they went to hell, it means they\u2019re going to fall out of fellowship with God. \u00a0[Hebrews 3:12, \u201cTake care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.\u201d]\n\nVerses 13-16 you\u2019ll start to develop a hard and insensitive heart.\u00a0 [13, \u201cBut encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still<\/em> called \u2018Today,\u2019 so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. [14] For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,\u00a0 [15] while it is said, \u2018TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, \u00a0DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.\u2019\u00a0 [16] For who provoked Him<\/em> when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led<\/em> by Moses? [17] And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? [18] And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? \u00a0[19] So<\/em> we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.\u201d]\n\nAnd one of the things to understand as a Christian, the first time you disobey God you feel so bad about it, but the second time you disobey God and it\u2019s the same sin you don\u2019t feel quite as bad about it, and the third time you disobey God, you maybe feel a little less bad about it, and this is the deceitfulness of sin.\u00a0 It has a tendency to callous us, making us less and less sensitive to the things of God.\u00a0 I remember when I first got saved and I sinned, I just felt so badly about it, and as years pass and you commit the same sin again, and again and again and again you\u2019ll notice that you don\u2019t feel quite as convicted.\n\nAnd this is the danger of moving into sin as you start to develop this very callous heart, an insensitive heart; you\u2019ll see that in the believer, that\u2019s what it\u2019s talking about, verses 13-16.\u00a0 And it might even translate into overt rebellion one day, verse 17, which translates into a loss of blessings, verses 18-19.\u00a0 What blessings am I talking about?\u00a0 Fellowship, rewards at the Bema Seat, full authority in the millennial kingdom, that Christ wants to give to us.\u00a0 You miss out on maturity, every second you\u2019re in sin is a moment you can\u2019t mature the way God wants you do.\u00a0 It\u2019s like when David sinned with Bathsheba he tried to cover his sin, I think it went on for about a year; it was a lost year.\u00a0 It was a lost year in terms of his walk with the Lord and that\u2019s what unconfessed sin does, it damages our walk with the Lord, it damages our fellowship with Him.\u00a0 Yeah, we\u2019re still going to heaven but look at the price tag that we\u2019re not counting on.\u00a0 And God can and will into the life of the sinning believer come in with divine discipline, just like He did with the Hebrews of old, Hebrews 12:5-11.\n\n[Hebrews 12:5-11, \u201cand you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, \u201cMY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;\u00a0 [6] FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.\u2019\u00a0 [7] It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his<\/em> father does not discipline? [8] But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. \u00a0<\/strong>[9] Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? \u00a0[10] For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us<\/em> for our<\/em> good, so that we may share His holiness. \u00a0[11] All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.\u201d]\n\nNow the audience at this point is saying but we\u2019re so persecuted, I mean, if we maintain obedience and stick with the full revelation of God we\u2019re just going to do nothing but experience persecution from these unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 And this is why the author, beginning in chapter 4, introduces the concept of rest.\u00a0 Chapter 4, verses 1-2 he starts to explain the concept of rest; in verses 3-5 he starts to explain the pattern of rest, and even quotes creation, how God worked on days 1 through 6 \u00a0of creation; what did He do on day 7?\u00a0 He rested, he quotes there the book of Exodus chapter 20:8-11 to that effect.\u00a0 And then you drop down to verses 6-10 and he starts explaining that this rest was available to David.\n\n[Hebrews 4:1-5, \u201cTherefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. [2] For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. [3] For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, \u2018AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,\u2019 although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.\u00a0 [4] For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day:<\/em> \u201cAND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS\u201d; [5] and again in this passage,<\/em> \u201cTHEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.\u201d\n\nExodus 20:8-11, \u201cRemember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it<\/em> you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. [11] For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.\u201d\n\nHebrews 5:6-10, \u201cTherefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, [7] He again fixes a certain day, \u201cToday,\u201d saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, \u00a0\u201cTODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.\u2019\u00a0 [8] For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. [9] So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. \u00a0[10] For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.\u201d]\n\nNow he\u2019s just skipped 400 years; this rest was available to the Joshua generation, the Joshua generation didn\u2019t have to do what they did in terms of disobedience if they had tapped into divine rest.\u00a0 David didn\u2019t have to do what he did with murder and adultery, first adultery then murder, if he had tapped into the reality of divine rest.\n\nSo the big debate here is what is the rest?\u00a0 And a lot of people will say well, the rest is salvation.\u00a0 That couldn\u2019t be true because the audience of the book already had salvation.\u00a0 This must be talking about something above and beyond salvation.\u00a0 My dear professor, Dr. Stanley Toussaint said that the rest is the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 Well, that never really made a lot of sense to me either because the millennial kingdom has already been offered to Israel in the ministry of Christ, rejected and what?\u00a0 postponed.\n\nThe rest here cannot be the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 The rest here cannot be salvation because they already had salvation.\u00a0 So then the question becomes what\u2019s the rest?\u00a0 The rest starts getting described in verses 14-16 which is the high priesthood of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 [Hebrews 4:14-16, \u201cTherefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet<\/em> without sin. [16] Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.\u201d]\n\nJesus Christ, at the Father\u2019s right hand, wants to give the believer rest.\u00a0 Verses 11-13 he exhorts them to enter that rest.\u00a0 [Hebrews 4:11-13, \u201cTherefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following<\/em> the same example of disobedience. [12] For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. [13] And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.\u201d]\n\nAnd it\u2019s in those verses that you get your great statement about God\u2019s Word, verse 12, \u201cFor the word of God is\u201d what? \u201cliving and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.\u201d\u00a0 Why does he give us a Bibliology, a doctrine of the Scripture here?\u00a0 His point is simply this: you\u2019re accountable for the Word that you do have.\u00a0 God expects you to take that Word and obey it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why He held the Exodus generation accountable, because they had the specific Word of God to go and occupy Canaan, which they didn\u2019t do.\u00a0 So God held them accountable to the Word that they had.\u00a0 And the audience now is beginning to understand true divine , that they have the full revelation of Christ so you\u2019re accountable to that revelation now that you know it.\u00a0 And beyond that, what you\u2019re starting to learn is you do not have to succumb to persecution and lapse back into Judaism, and forfeit divine blessings because rest is available for the Christian.\u00a0 Now what is the source of that rest?\u00a0\u00a0 It is the priesthood of Jesus after the order of Melchizedek.\u00a0 Jesus has three offices: prophet, priest, king.\u00a0 Prophet is what he was like in His First Coming; King is what He is like in His what?\u00a0 Second coming.\u00a0 Watch this very carefully, priesthood is what He is like what?\u00a0 Now.\n\nNow if you go around and you talk to different Christians what you\u2019ll discover is they know a ton about the First Coming of Christ.\u00a0 They know a ton about the Second Coming of Christ.\u00a0 But what they do not understand, and I don\u2019t know the reason for this and I\u2019ve even read quotes from Lewis Sperry Chafer, in his day this was a problem as well, your average Christian knows almost nothing about the present priesthood of Christ.\u00a0 And yet it\u2019s the present priesthood of Christ, of all of the offices of Christ, that has the most power to help you right now as a Christian, as\u00a0 you go through struggles.\u00a0 The theologians, Dr. Chafer had a technical word for this, he called it Christ\u2019s present session.\n\nAnd I hope you don\u2019t think that Jesus in heaven right now is just doing nothing; He is doing a ton of stuff, not the least of which is building the church, giving the church spiritual gifts, and one of the things that He is doing is He is functioning as high priest, not after the order of Aaron, which is just an earthly priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek.\u00a0 And one of the things He will do for you is in the midst of your storm He will give you rest in the midst of your storm.\u00a0 That\u2019s the rest; it\u2019s not salvation, it\u2019s not the millennial kingdom, it\u2019s what the believer has access to presently.\n\nSo he begins to develop this beginning in verse 14.\u00a0 He says, \u201cTherefore we\u201d what? \u201chave a great high priest.\u201d\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say you had a high priest or you\u2019re going to get a high priest, he basically says you\u2019ve got one right now, \u201cwho has passed through the\u201d what? \u201cthe heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.\u201d\u00a0 Which was their what? Their baptism.\u00a0 You get baptized as a Hebrew Christian, the unbelieving Jews are persecuting you, come back into the institutions of Judaism; over decades you could see how this would wear on the audience.\u00a0 If you go back into Judaism you\u2019re cutting yourself off from blessings that God has for you.\n\nSo instead of succumbing to the will of man, instead of succumbing to fatigue why don\u2019t you just go right on into your high priest, Jesus Christ, who by the way never takes a day off, who can\u2019t wait to hear your prayer and who can\u2019t wait to give you encouragement and strength right now, where you\u2019re at right now so you don\u2019t have to fall backwards and forfeit what God has for you.\n\nAnd by the way you Jews, you had a high regard for Aaron who just served on the earth, but where is Jesus?\u00a0 He\u2019s passed through the heavens.\u00a0 He\u2019s a higher priest than Aaron because He\u2019s not on the earth, He\u2019s in heaven.\u00a0 Now can this priest really sympathize with us?\u00a0 I mean, He\u2019s up in heaven, his life is easy, how can He possibly understand what I\u2019m going through.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked, verse 15, \u201cFor we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in\u201d some things\u2026 sorry, it doesn\u2019t say that, \u201call things as we are, yet<\/em> without sin.\u201d\n\nNow I\u2019ve used this analogy before but when I played basketball I always had two kinds of coaches.\u00a0 I played from 7th<\/sup> grade all the way through my senior year in college.\u00a0 I had coaches that I\u2019d never played; I had other coaches that had played.\u00a0 And coaches have a tendency to scream and yell and tell you to work harder, push yourself, and all this kind of stuff.\u00a0 Now which coach has your respect?\u00a0 The coach that\u2019s been through the training you\u2019ve been through and understands the pain you\u2019re under.\u00a0 What would a guy who\u2019s never played the game or gone through the ritual of athleticism, what would he understand about pain?\n\nSo what you have to understand about Christ is He\u2019s the coach that\u2019s played, He\u2019s the coach that lived on this earth and that\u2019s why all these statements are given in the Gospels, that \u201cJesus wept.\u201d\u00a0 He knows what it\u2019s like to experience grief.\u00a0 He was thirsty, He knows what it\u2019s like to experience deprivation.\u00a0 In His humanity He didn\u2019t even know when He was coming back, Matthew 24:36 says that.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:36, \u201cBut of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.\u201d]\u00a0 So He knows what it\u2019s like not to have answers, because we want answers.\u00a0 Well, Jesus didn\u2019t have all the answers either.\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about in His deity, I\u2019m talking about in His humanity.\n\nWell, you don\u2019t understand, somebody I trusted stabbed me in the back!\u00a0 Well, Jesus knows a little something about that, one of His best friends, Judas, just betrayed Him to the point of death.\u00a0 He understands physical agony.\u00a0 He tells John at the end of his life to look after my mother, He knows what it\u2019s like to have aging parents that need help.\u00a0 You think of the full spectrum of\u00a0 life and Jesus understands all of that.\u00a0 So when you pray to Him you\u2019re not praying to some disinterested being, you\u2019re praying to someone who understands your needs and has gone through the full gamut in ways that we don\u2019t even understand ourselves.\n\nAnd then verse 16, it says, and I\u2019ll stop with this, \u201cTherefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace,\u201d isn\u2019t it great that His present priesthood is a gracious priesthood, in other words, He wants to give you what you don\u2019t deserve, which is rest or strength in the midst of your difficulties.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.\u201d\u00a0 See, these people were needy.\u00a0 They were needy in the sense that they were thinking about lapsing back into Judaism.\u00a0 They were under persecution.\n\nSo the present priesthood of Christ is going to help them in their time of need.\u00a0 By the way, did you notice that it says to boldly into the throne room of God?\u00a0 Did you ever do that under Aaron\u2019s system?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 You see that veil there that separates the Holy place from the Most Holy place.\u00a0 In fact, if you were to go\u2026 and that\u2019s where Aaron went one time a year to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat on which day of the\u00a0 year?\u00a0 Yom Kippur, which means day of covering, which is described in which chapter of the Bible?\u00a0 Leviticus 16.\u00a0 Only one guy went behind that veil one time a year and if he messed something up he was what?\u00a0 Killed.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there was a rope tied to the priest\u2019s foot because if he\u2026 see the bells at the bottom of his garment? \u00a0I don\u2019t hear any ringing something must have gone wrong, well I know, I\u2019ll charge in there and pull out his corpse.\u00a0 NO, because then you\u2019ll have two corpses.\u00a0 So according to Jewish tradition they pulled him out through this rope.\n\nNow compare that system, which was as good as they had, to what you have where you can just go boldly into the throne room of God any time you want to.\u00a0 And by the way, what happened to that veil when Jesus died?\u00a0 It ripped top to bottom, Matthew 27:50-51, indicating that we\u2019re in a new priesthood now.\u00a0 [Matthew 27:50-51, \u201cAnd Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.\u00a0 [51] And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.\u201d]\n\nDo you understand how privileged we are just in the era of time that we live in?\u00a0 And yet we\u2019re too busy to pray.\u00a0 What an insult to God and what God has provided. \u00a0Prayer and going into His presence should be the top priority of the believer because that\u2019s what\u2019s going to help you when you\u2019re tempted to lapse backward or sin and forfeit all kinds of blessings.\u00a0 And so that is what I think he\u2019s saying in that warning passage; it isn\u2019t talking about going to hell; it\u2019s saying don\u2019t go back into sin.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to forfeit blessings.\u00a0 Well, how do I prevent myself from doing that?\u00a0 You access your present high priest.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he\u2019s saying.\n\nNow from there he says let me tell you about the Melchizedekian priesthood.\u00a0 But we have a problem because Melchizedek is an obscure figure that only shows up once in the Bible, historically.\u00a0 And developing the concept of the Melchizedekian priesthood will require a mature audience because he\u2019s going to resort to typology.\u00a0 This is not \u201cGod loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life\u201d type of preaching here.\u00a0 This is not your typical three points and a poem.\u00a0 This is stuff that requires a mature audience and quite frankly the writer doesn\u2019t really think that the audience is up to the task.\u00a0 And that\u2019s gives him the incentive to go into his third warning, a warning\u00a0 you\u2019re probably familiar with by now because we\u2019ve been going over it, the warning against immaturity.\n\nYou see the logical flow of this book?\u00a0 I mean this is a brilliant piece of literature: major point, minor point, major premise, minor premise, conclusion, diversion when it\u2019s appropriate, gets right back into its central point and I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m just overwhelmed at this book.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll stop talking at this point.\u00a0 Any thoughts or questions?","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t