Better: A Study of the Christian Life in Hebrews

by Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

Table of Contents

I'd Rather Have Jesus than Angels - Hebrews 1:1-4

More Excellent Than Angels - Hebrews 1:4-14

Neglecting So Great a Salvation - Hebrews 2:1-4

By the Grace of God, He Tasted Death - Hebrews 2:5-9

Surprised By Suffering? - Hebrews 2:10-13

Like His Brethren in All Things - Hebrews 2:14-18

More Glory Than Moses - Hebrews 3:1-6

Don't Stop Believing - Hebrews 3:7-19

The Rest That Remains - Hebrews 4:1-13

Mercy and Grace in Time of Need - Hebrews 4:14-16

Heard Because of His Reverence - Hebrews 5:1-10

It's Hard to Explain - Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Falling Away? - Hebrews 6:4-12

Promise + Oath = Hope - Hebrews 6:13-20

Jesus and Melchizedek - Hebrews 7:1-10

The Guarantee of a Better Covenant - Hebrews 7:11-28

The Mediator of a Better Covenant - Hebrews 8:1-13

The Holy Spirit is Signifying This - Hebrews 9:1-14

For This Reason He Is the Mediator of the New Covenant - Hebrews 9:15-28

Once for All - Hebrews 10:1-18

Draw Near, Hold Fast, Consider How - Hebrews 10:19-25

If We Go on Sinning Wilfully - Hebrews 10:26-39

Faith is. . . ? - Hebrews 11:1-7

By Faith, Abraham and Sarah. . . - Hebrews 11:8-19

By Faith, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. . . - Hebrews 11:20-29

He Disciplines Us for Our Good - Hebrews 12:1-3

The Good of Discipline - Hebrews 12:1-11

Preparation for God's Presence - Hebrews 12:12-17

Mt. Zion - Hebrews 12:18-29

Love The Brethren - Hebrews 13:1-3

Honor Marriage - Hebrews 13:4

Don't Fall in Love with Money - Hebrews 13:5-6

Those Who Led You - Hebrews 13:7

Let Us Go to Jesus - Hebrews 13:8-14

Live Life as a Sacrifice of Praise - Hebrews 13:15-16

Obey Your Leaders - Hebrews 13:17

Pray for Preachers - Hebrews 13:18-19

The Great Shepherd of the Sheep - Hebrews 13:20-25

I'd Rather Have Jesus than Angels - Hebrews 1:1-4

Hebrews 1:1-4

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1. We're going to be looking at verses 1 to 4 this morning, but after our reading I'd like you to keep your Bibles open because I want to turn to a few passages in the book of Hebrews to illustrate one particular point. We're beginning a new series which we have called, "Better," for reasons that I hope you'll understand by the time that we're finished this morning. That's an important word in the book of Hebrews. It's found in a number of places in the New Testament with reference to the same theme but none more frequently than in the letter, this sermon, this book of Hebrews.

Hebrews is a book about persevering in faith and it reminds us of the various challenges to Christian faith and it points us to the sure foundation and the source of power for vital Christianity, and that is, in understanding the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Over and over the author of Hebrews points us to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. And we need to hear its message today just as much as the first congregation that heard this sermon. They were struggling with hanging on to outmoded Old Testament forms and they kind of longed to go back. And the author of Hebrews is saying to them, "No, Jesus is better. " Well we too have similar struggles in our own day. We often struggle with letting go of past forms of thinking that we had before we were Christians and we often give into current ideas that are floating around in the world or set our hearts on current desires of this world instead of being transformed by the renewing of our mind according to Scripture. And these things stunt our growth and they rob us of much of the joy and the satisfaction and the security and the blessing of the Christian life. And so Hebrews is written to us as well.

It was originally written to Christians from a Jewish background, and hence the name of the book, Hebrews. Imagine their context. All they have is the Old Testament. They have a Jewish heritage, they've been trained by the rabbis teaching them Scripture, in their day angel worship is popular and some of them are wavering in their commitment to Christianity. And perhaps they have had some of their fellow country-men say to them, "You can have everything that you have in this new spirituality if you'll just come back to your old religious heritage and then you don't have to be a traitor to your race and to that heritage. " And the pastor is saying to them in this sermon, "Don't go back. Don't turn your back on Jesus because He is the only hope. " They're wavering in their commitment to Christ and Christianity.

Well we don't know who the author, the preacher, was. We don't know where the congregation was that he was writing to, and we don't know where he was writing from. And you know what? That's all good and well because it leaves all the focus on his message and that's where the focus needs to be. And the message over and over again is: Jesus. Over and over, the author of this sermon, this letter, this book, focuses us on Jesus and stresses His finality and superiority for the Christian faith. Larry Richards says this. "The book of Hebrews begins with Jesus. Total confidence in Him must be the basis of our new life and of our identity as Christians. It is important to realize that all there is of salvation for us is to be found in Jesus. " And the author of Hebrews will say that to us fifty different ways over and over again to drive that point home and deep into our hearts and souls.

Let's pray before we read Hebrews 1:1-4 together.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and we need it. We need it as much as the first congregation needed to hear this message. And so we pray that by the Spirit You would press it home, in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it:

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Maybe you're entering this New Year flagging in your faith. Maybe you're finding it hard to even pray. Maybe you feel that your religion and your worship experiences have come up short and you're so disappointment, maybe even desperate, that you're beginning to look somewhere else for the answers, you're looking somewhere else for the satisfaction that has escaped you or the hope that eludes you or the fulfillment that you lack. Well if you're there, Hebrews is waiting for you, and the author, the preacher of this message, is saying that Jesus is better than whatever else it is that you're looking for. Jesus is better. He's a better Savior, He's a better Priest, He's a better sacrifice for a better covenant and for a better way of life. So if you're lacking and empty, it's not because Jesus is not what you need or not all that you need, it's because you don't have enough of Him. And that's one reason why this word, "better," keeps occurring in the letter of the Hebrews, the sermon of the Hebrews, because we're so tempted to think that there's something else out there better. And the author is saying to us, "No, Jesus is better. There's not something out there better than Jesus; Jesus is better than anything else. " And I want you to see this theme in the book of Hebrews.

Keep your Bible open, and turn with me to Hebrews 6 verse 9. Here, the author of Hebrews says that "we feel sure of better things - things that belong to salvation. " So in Hebrews 6:9 he speaks of a better salvation. Look at Hebrews 7 verse 19. There, he speaks of a better hope "through which we draw near to God. " We've got a better salvation and a better hope in Jesus. Then look at Hebrews 7 verse 22. "Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant. " We not only have a better salvation and a better hope, we have a better covenant in Jesus. Turn forward to Hebrews chapter 8 and look at verse 6. "Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. " So we not only have a better covenant; we have better promises. By the way, this verse reminds us that the theme of "Better" will not only be shown to you by your English Bibles by looking for the word, "better" in your concordance, but by looking at phrases like "superior" or "more excellent" that theme will be carried out in the book.

Turn forward to Hebrews 9:23. "The heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. " And so with Jesus, we have better sacrifices. Look at Hebrews 10:34. "You knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. " So the Gospel that Jesus brings gives you a better and abiding possession or inheritance. Turn forward to Hebrews 11 verse 16. They desired, these pilgrims of faith in the days of the old covenant — what did they desire? "They desired a better country, a heavenly one," and we have that in Christ. Look at Hebrews 11:35. What did these old covenant saints endure? They were tortured, they refused to accept release. Why? "So that they might rise again to a better life. " Hebrews 11:40 — "God has provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. " Hebrews 12:24 — The blood of Jesus speaks to us "a better word than the blood of Abel. " That theme of "Better" is found throughout the book of Hebrews, and this morning I want you to feel that theme of "Better" with regard to Jesus in your bones. And I want to do that by looking directly at the description of Jesus that is found here in Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 to 4. Actually, we won't even get out of verse 3. It's all going to be in verses 1, 2, and 3, and I want you to see just two things that the author of Hebrews teaches us about Jesus in Hebrews 1 verses 1 to 3.

THE SON IS GOD'S FINAL WORD

The first thing you're going to see in verse 1 and the first half of verse 2. And it's simply this. The Son is God's final word. The Son, Jesus, the Son of God, is God's final word. Look at what he says. "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. " The author of Hebrews is emphasizing that Jesus is God's final word to us; there's no word beyond or better than Jesus that God has or will speak to His people. Jesus is the final word. And think of the significance of that in this context. He's speaking to Hebrew Christians from a Jewish background and they had received true and clear revelation of God from the prophets in various times and in various ways. But in contrast to that, the author of Hebrews says that now God has spoken to you by His own Son, not just His servants, the prophets, but by His Son, His Son's person, His Son's works, His Son's words, and there's never ever going to be a superior, a better revelation from God than the revelation that He is giving to you in His Son.

Now by the way, in just saying that, the author of Hebrews has contradicted three world views that surround you right now. There's the worldview of pluralism that wants to say that Jesus is a truth but He's not the truth. No, the author of Hebrews says that Jesus is God's final word. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Or our Muslim friends who want to believe that Jesus was a prophet but He wasn't the final, the greatest prophet; no, you have to wait until Mohammed until you get God's final word. The author of Hebrews is standing up on his toes and he's saying, "No! Jesus is God's final word, not Mohammed. Jesus is God's fullest revelation of who He is and how He saves. " And then we live in a day and age where Mormonism is expanding in the world and Mormonism claims to have an ongoing revelation, more revelation than we've ever had before. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "No! Jesus is the final word. "

And I want you to sit back and think about that for a moment, my friends. Do you understand what the author of Hebrews is claiming? He is claiming that you, dear Christian, have a clearer and fuller revelation of God in Jesus, in the Gospel, than any of the greatest Old Testament saints. You have had a fuller revelation of God given to you in Jesus than Moses did, than Abraham did, than David did! What a blessing! What a privilege! What an accountability, that we have been given that full revelation of God to us in Jesus. It calls upon us to believe. That's the first thing I want you to see. The Son is God's final word.

JESUS IS THE DIVINE SON

The second thing is this, and you'll see it in the second half of verse 2 and in all of verse 3. And it's simply this. The Jesus that we believe in, the Jesus that this book preaches, the Jesus who is offered in the Gospel, the Jesus that we believe in is this Jesus who is the divine Son. Now if you look at the second half of verse 2 and all of verse 3, I think that you will be able to count up seven things that the author of Hebrews crams into those two little verses to say about Jesus. He wants you to get an idea of the greatness of this Jesus. He wants you to get an idea of what it means to say that Jesus is God's Son, that He's fully divine. And I want you to look at these seven words that he says about Jesus.

JESUS IS THE HEIR OF ALL THINGS

First of all, notice that he says that Jesus is the heir of all things. God appointed Him what? Verse 2 — "heir of all things. " Now you don't need to know a whole lot about inheritance law to understand this. If Jesus is the heir of all things, how are you going to participate in His inheritance? Only if you are related to Him. If He's the heir of all things, if in the end everything's coming to Him, how are you going to share in the inheritance? Only if you're united to Him by faith. That's the only way you're going to inherit. Have you ever been part of a family squabble where somebody's been cut out of a will? It's not a happy thing; I've seen it happen. You want to be a part of this will? You have to be united to Jesus by faith because He's the heir of everything. That's the first thing that the author of Hebrews says about Him.

GOD MADE THE WORLD THROUGH JESUS

The second thing is this. God made the world through Him. Look at verse 2 — "through whom also He created the world. " Jesus is the one through whom God made the world. Good Hebrews understood that God was the maker of heaven and earth. We confessed that this morning using the Nicene Creed and on next Lord's Day when we have the Lord's Supper we'll confess it again when we use the Apostle's Creed, but God is the maker of heaven and earth. When the author of Hebrews tells you that Jesus is the one through whom God created the world, he's telling you that Jesus is God. You know, understanding that someone is the author of a work is designed to raise your esteem to that person, for you to give them a due esteem for what they have created.

When I was ten years old, my father took me to Scotland and he was a member of the Rotary Club — some of you are Rotarians, and if you're a Rotarian you know that it means that you've got to go to all those meetings. And so even while we were in Scotland he had to look up the address of the Edinburgh Rotary Club and we went to the Edinburgh Rotary Club on Tuesday for lunch. And they had beef and kidney pie! Ahh! He took me to Wimpy Hamburger afterwards to have a hamburger because I could not eat that beef and kidney pie! But while we were there, he got into the most interesting discussion with the fine Scottish gentleman who he was sitting next to at the meal. And it was a discussion about the Scotch-Irish, those Scots who had emigrated from Scotland to Northern Ireland and then come to the United States. And in the midst of this discussion, my father said to this distinguished gentleman, "You don't know what you're talking about!" Well I noticed the man's round, Rotarian name badge said that his name was J. D. Mackie and that he was at the University of Edinburgh. Well, as I was sitting there quietly listening to their conversation I had a book in front of me called, The History of Scotland. It was written by J. D. Mackie! And I kept poking my dad, "Dad! Dad!" … "Son, son!" And so as we were walking out I said, "Dad, you know that man that you just told that he didn't know anything that Scottish history? He's a professor of Scottish history at the University of Edinburgh!" Oh, it should have raised my father's esteem for Dr. Mackie but instead he said to me, "Well, he still didn't know that he was talking about!" Knowing that Jesus is the author, the creator of everything, ought to raise our esteem for Him, and that is what the author of Hebrews is doing.

JESUS IS THE RADIANCE OF GOD'S GLORY

Third, if you'll notice again in verse 3, the author of Hebrews says that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. The Son is the radiance, the revelation, of the glory of God, so that if you want to know the glory of God, you look at the Son. Kings, when they want to reflect their glory, often build monuments. You know, one of the purposes of Versailles was so that Louis XIV's allies and enemies could be brought there and they could see the splendor of the King of France on display and be intimidated and impressed by it, so kings often build monuments to their glory. Some of you have been to St. Paul's in London and you've seen the inscription of Christopher Wren, his obituary where it says that if you seek a monument for him, look around you, because he was the architect not only of St. Paul's but so much of London. And the point was, that St. Paul's that beautiful cathedral and so much of the splendorous architecture that he had developed was his monument; it reflected his creativity as an architect. It reflected something of his glory. Well, the author of Hebrews says that if you want to see God's glory, look at Jesus. That's the third thing he says.

JESUS IS THE EXACT REPRESENTATION OF GOD'S NATURE

But he goes on and he says a fourth thing in verse 3. He is "the exact imprint of his nature. " That is, Jesus is the exact representation of God's nature. You know how if you take a seal and you dip it in wax and you stamp something and you pull it up, the representation that is left is a mirror image of the seal. And the author of Hebrews is saying that Jesus is the exact representation of God. One old archbishop of Canterbury once said, when you could trust what an archbishop of Canterbury said, he said, "There is in God no un-Christlikeness at all. " Isn't that a beautiful way of saying that Jesus exactly represents to us what God is like because He is God in the flesh?

JESUS UPHOLDS ALL THINGS BY HIS WORD

But the author of Hebrews isn't done. He says a fifth thing; look again at verse 3. "He upholds the universe by the word of his power. " He is the upholder of all things by the word of His power. You know the Greeks, in their mythology, had Atlas holding up the earth, but the author of Hebrews is saying that Jesus does more. He not only upholds the world, He moves it towards its ultimate end and destiny. He is the providential upholder of all things.

JESUS HAS COMPLETED THE WORK OF PURIFICATION

Sixth, look again at verse 3 — "After making purification for sins. " Jesus has completed the work of purification. You want to have the guilt of your sins dealt with? Jesus has already dealt with it. Now the author of Hebrews doesn't tell you how yet; he will, but right now he's just telling you that Jesus is the one who's dealt with your sins for you so that you can have forgiveness, so that you can have a clear conscience.

JESUS IS SEATED AT GOD'S RIGHT HAND

And then seventh, look again one more time at verse 3. "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. " Now sitting at the right hand, in the New Testament and the Old, is a picture of reigning. You remember when we studied Psalm 110 last month? It speaks of "The LORD saying to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand. '" It's a picture of reign, of honor, of rule. And the author of Hebrews here alludes to Psalm 110; later he'll quote it. But here he alludes to that and he says Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. But He's not just there receiving honor, having servants fan Him with ostrich and peacock feathers, He's actively interceding for you. Do you know that there's one place in the New Testament where we find Jesus not sitting at the right hand but standing. Remember where that is? It's Acts 7:56. It's where Stephen is being martyred for his witness to Jesus and as he is dying, he sees heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand. Now whatever could that mean?

Standing is the posture of prayer. It's the most common posture of prayer in the Old Testament. When Moses is interceding for the armies of Israel as they fight against the enemies of God, what is he doing? He's standing up with his hands outstretched just like we do during the invocation and the call to worship. And so it's a posture of intercession. What's that supposed to convey to Stephen? Your Lord ever lives to intercede and now in your time of need, while you're dying for Him, He's interceding for you. He's not just sitting there being fanned with ostrich and peacock feathers; He's ever living to intercede for His people.

Now that's the picture of Jesus that the author of Hebrews opens this sermon, this letter with. Why does he tell you this? Because if our Christian life is flagging, Jesus is what we need. If our Christian life is flagging, Jesus is who we need. In Him the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. In Him are all the blessings of God from whom all blessings flow. If you feel empty, it's not because He's empty, it's because you need more of Him because He's all you need. Don't you love that song that we written by Sovereign Grace Ministries a few years ago? It has the chorus, "Hallelujah, all I have is Christ. Hallelujah, Jesus is my life. " That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. "All I have is Christ and that's all I need because He's better. " I'd rather have Jesus than angels; I'd rather have Jesus than anything because He's better. We need to get Him. We need to get Him better because He's what we need, nothing else. Let's pray.

O Lord, in these days together in this book, grant that we would get Jesus better because He's what we need. We ask this in His name, amen.

Let's sing of Him using the first two stanzas of number 310.

Receive this blessing from your better Savior. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

More Excellent Than Angels - Hebrews 1:4-14

Hebrews 1:4-14

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1 as we continue to make our way through this great sermon, this great letter, together. This morning, we're going to be looking at verses 4 to 14. I'm going to pick up in verse 3 so that we're not starting in the middle of a sentence. Last Lord's Day we read verses 1 to 4 but we focused on verses 1 to 3; this Lord's Day we're going to look at verses 4 to 14 together.

Now Hebrews, as we said the last time, Hebrews is a book about persevering in the faith. It is a book that is designed to help us meet the various challenges to living the Christian life and it points, over and over again, to the only sure foundation, the only source of power for living the Christian life, which is the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And you got that even in the first three verses. You can tell when you hear the first three verses of Hebrews chapter 1 that this is a book about Jesus and it's a book about His sufficiency and it's a book about His excellence. Just look at the first three verses that we studied last week together and in those verses alone the author of Hebrews will tell you that God has spoken finally and uniquely in His Son and that the inheritance that God has pledged belongs to His Son and that the world belongs to His Son and that the coming kingdom belongs to His Son and that the power to create belongs to His Son and that the manifested and the original glory of God belongs to the Son and that the sustaining power that upholds this universe belongs to the Son and that the work of redemption belongs to the Son and that the reigning, exalted Majesty belongs to the Son. Now he packs all that into three verses. Just guess what's coming! He's driving home the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

And then you get into verse 4 and there's a comparative. Jesus, the Son, is compared to someone else; and just take a look at it — "having become as much superior to the angels. " Now there are two interesting parts of that little phrase. The first part that ought to catch your attention as a believer who recites The Apostles Creed, and you're going to recite it this morning - you recite The Nicene Creed; you recited it last Lord's Day. The first little phrase in this sentence that ought to interest you is this one — "having become. " What do you mean, Jesus "having become more superior than the angels"? We believe in the deity of Christ. There wasn't some time when Jesus wasn't more superior than the angels. We don't believe that there was a time when He was not deity and then He became deity or there was a time when He was less superior and He became more superior. So what in the world does the author of Hebrews mean, "having become more superior"? Well, we'll talk about that later in the message.

But the other interesting part of that phrase is this - the comparison to angels. Why in the world angels? Why is the author of this sermon, this letter, comparing Jesus to angels? Well, it's because apparently this congregation is tempted to think that angels, or at least some of them, may be superior to Christ. We know that there were various branches of the Jewish community, including the Essenes, who had a very high view of angels who thought Michael and his angels were going to reign in the kingdom to come, they believed that the last days were upon them, and that Michael was going to bring in the eternal reign of God. They had a very high view of angels. And we also know, from Paul's little letter to the Colossians, that there was an apparent temptation of some Christians to even worship angels because Paul warns against the worship of angels in Colossians chapter 2. Well I don't know exactly the temptation that is facing this particular congregation, but the author of Hebrews thinks that it's actually very important that they understand that Jesus is superior to angels, that He's better than angels, that He's more excellent than angels. And that's what he's going to be talking with us about today.

In fact, in this passage that we study, I want you to see it in two parts. First is that comparative. In verse 4, the author is pressing home this important truth — that Jesus, the Son, is better than the angels. Be on the lookout for how we expound that. And then from verses 4 all the way down to 14, he quotes seven Scripture passages from the Old Testament in order to press home five truths that the Old Testament says about the Messiah, about Jesus the Son, that show that He is better than the angels. In other words, the two parts of this passage are — Jesus is better than the angels and Jesus is better than the angels is proven from Scripture. That's the two parts of the passage. And then I'll add a deduction to that and there you have the sermon outline. Jesus is better than the angels, Jesus is better than the angels is proven from Scripture, and a deduction. And there's the three-part sermon outline.

Before we read God's Word, let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We know that. Most of us openly acknowledge that this is the inspired, inerrant, authoritative Word of God, but there are some things that we believe to be true that we find it hard to believe. So we need Your Holy Spirit to press this truth deep into our hearts and bones and lodge it there and make it live and grow so that we walk by faith, even when we have no sight. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3:

"He (and if you take a peek, the "He" refers to the Son who has been mentioned in verse 2) He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'?

Or again, 'I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son'?

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him. '

Of the angels he says, 'He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire. '

But of the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. '

And, 'You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end. '

And to which of the angels has he ever said, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'?

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?"

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Is Jesus enough for you? That's what the congregation that this preacher is preaching to, is writing to, is wrestling with. Is Jesus enough? If He's all I'm left with, is He enough? Is there something better out there than Jesus? If there something outside, someone outside of Jesus that's better, that's superior, that's more excellent? And there's a real sense in which the author of this book has a one-point sermon and a one-point answer. Jesus is enough; Jesus is better. Jesus is superior; Jesus is more excellent. And oh, how we need to hear that word.

JESUS IS BETTER THAN THE ANGELS

There are two things I want you to see from this passage this morning and the first one you'll see right there in verse 4. Jesus, the Son, is better than the angels; Jesus, the Son, is more excellent than the angels — "He was much superior to the angels and His name is more excellent than theirs. " This comparison with angels is because this congregation is being tempted to think that angels are better than Jesus. Now my guess is that very few of you during this last week worshiped angels. I hope that very few of you this last week worshiped angels. But my guess is that a great many of you, maybe all of us, underestimated Jesus and were tempted to think that Jesus is not enough. And the problem, you understand my friends, that you and I are facing and the problem that this congregation was facing in thinking angels were superior to Jesus, is the same. We are all prone, we are all apt, to underestimate Jesus. And the one-point sermon of this letter, of this book, is: Don't ever underestimate Jesus. He is so excellent, He is so superior, He is so literally divine that it is impossible to overestimate Him. Don't underestimate Jesus.

But all of us are tempted to do that. We think that there's something if we just had then life would be right if we just had that. And if the "that" that we think that we just need to have in order for life to be right isn't Jesus, then we're underestimating Him. Or maybe we think that Jesus and the promises that He brings, they just haven't panned out for us and we're going to need to look somewhere else for satisfaction and hope and joy and fulfillment. And the author of Hebrews is standing athwart that temptation and he is saying to you, "Do not underestimate Jesus because there's nothing that compares with Jesus, not even Michael the archangel, not even Gabriel, not even all the angels combined. None of them compare to Jesus. "

And just in case our hearts are having a hard time taking that in, he says, "Let me just demonstrate that to you from Scripture. " Isn't that beautiful? This pastor preaching to this congregation almost two thousand years ago says, "Let me prove my main point from the Bible, let me do a little exposition for you and let me show you from the Bible. " And isn't it beautiful? He goes to Scriptures, all of which were written hundreds of years before Jesus ever came and he says, "I can prove to you that Jesus is superior to the angels. Even before He came I can prove that to you from Scripture. And he takes you to seven Scripture passages and he makes five claims about Jesus. And just look at them with me because this is the second thing that I want you to see in the passage, that Christ's superiority is demonstrated Scripturally in these five ways by an appeal to the Old Testament writings.

JESUS IS BETTER THAN THE ANGELS PROVEN FROM SCRIPTURE

JESUS IS THE UNIQUE SON

And the first thing that he says, look at verses 4 and 5, is that Jesus is the very and unique Son of God. He quotes from Psalm 2, he quotes from 2 Samuel 7, and he says that Jesus is the very and unique Son of God. The angels are not the very and unique Son of God; only Jesus is. Those passages apply to Jesus and to Jesus only. He is superior to the angels.

JESUS IS THE MASTER OF THE ANGELS

And the second thing that he says is this. Look at verses 6 and 7. Not only is Jesus superior to the angels as the Son, He is the master of the angels. They are merely His servants, His ministers. And he quotes from Psalm 97 — "and let all the angels of God worship Him. " And then again from, "who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. " The point is that these angels minister in the service of Jesus. He is their master, they are His servants, and the master is greater than the servants. You know the old joke about the pope and the chauffeur, right? You know, the pope wants to drive the car and so with some difficulty he talks his chauffeur into letting him drive. And while driving, the pope gets a speeding ticket. And the policeman comes up to the driver's window, motions to him to roll it down, sees that it's the pope, says, "One moment please," walks back to the car, calls into dispatch, and says, "I've just pulled over the pope for speeding. I have no idea who it must be in the backseat. "

Now I had something similar to that happen to me in December of this past year. I was in Louisville with three other guys and Al Mohler was driving us in the car. And he dropped one off who was sitting in the front passenger's seat and he dropped another one off who was sitting in the back left passenger's seat, and it left him driving and me in the back right passenger's seat. And I said to Al, "Al, I would dearly love it if somebody could see that the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and perhaps the leading public intellectual in evangelicalism is driving me around Louisville!" And he said, "Lig, if they did, it would confirm the suspicions of some of my fellow Baptists!" But the point is, chauffeurs chauffeur around people who are more important than they are. So we've got chauffeurs in our congregation. That's what you do. People who are important, or who at least think they are, high chauffeurs to chauffeur them around. The angels are just servants; they're just Jesus' chauffeurs. They do His bidding.

JESUS IS THE RULER OF THE KINGDOM

Third, look at verses 8 and 9. Not only is He superior to the angels, not only is He the master of the angels, He is the ruler of the kingdom. The psalmist, in Psalm 45, is quoted by the author of Hebrews where he makes this point that Christ is the ruler of the empire of God. "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. " The throne is Jesus' throne; He is God's representative. He is sovereign over the kingdom. He is exalted due to His righteousness.

JESUS IS THE CREATOR

And then again, fourth, look at verses 10 to 12. The author of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 102 and he says not only is Jesus superior to the angel, the master of the angels, not only is He the ruler of God's kingdom, He is the Creator! "You laid the foundation of the earth. " It's just like John 1 — "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and there was not anything made that He did not make. " He's the Creator and every good Hebrew knows that the Creator is God.

JESUS REIGNS

And fifth, look at verses 13 to 14. Here he quotes Psalm 110. Do you remember when we studied Psalm 110 together? I told you that the author of Hebrews was going to quote it. Here it is; Psalm 110 verse 1. You'll find it in verses 13 and 14 of Hebrews chapter 1. "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. " Christ is Lord! He reigns! His enemies are put under His feet; He sits at the right hand of God, the position of authority and honor and dominion and power in God's kingdom. And the author of Hebrews says Scripture says that about Jesus. He is superior to the angels. You understand why he's saying this? He's saying this because we're so prone to underestimate Jesus.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about that "having been made" line, didn't I? What does that mean that He, "having been made more excellent than, superior to, the angels"? That is a phrase that the author of Hebrews uses repeatedly to point to the unfathomably costly redeeming work of Jesus. The angels, as glorious and exalted as they are — and did you notice how the author of Hebrews points that out in the very last line? He's not denigrating the angels at all; they are servants of God. As glorious and as exalted as they are, no angel was ever humiliated for you. No angel ever hung on the tree bearing the full weight of your sins and the sins of the world. But the Son of God, who is superior to angels, who is master of all angels, who is Lord of the empire of God, who is the Creator of this world, who sits at the right hand, He shed His blood for you. And the Father says, "You see what My Son did for you so that you could be forgiven, so that you could be accepted, so that you could be brought into the family of God and inherit all of the things that I promised to My Son, do you see what He endured for you, the humiliation that He bore for you? No angel ever did that for you. So by rite of what He did, I will give Him His due because He bought you, He earned you, and it would be the most unjust thing in this universe for Me not to pour out all blessings on you as you trust in Him because He did this for you. " No angel ever did that for us.

I was talking to a dear friend this week and she said, she's in a very dark place, she said, "I am on a journey of enough right now. " You know what she means? She said, "I am having to ask myself the question, 'Is Jesus enough? Is Jesus enough that if this that I want so desperately doesn't happen, I can still say Jesus is enough? Or is Jesus enough so that if this that I don't want to happen more than anything that I've ever not wanted to happen, if it happens, I can still say, 'Jesus is enough'?" Are any of you on the journey of enough? Ever been on the journey for enough? Are you on the journey of enough right now? Dear sister, that's where I am, and the author of Hebrews is there waiting to say, "Jesus not only enough, He's better, He's more, He's superior, He's more excellent, He is all, He is everything. " Hallelujah, all I have is Christ. Hallelujah, Jesus is my life. And if you still don't believe that, Christian, won't you come and taste and see that He is good?

Let's pray.

Oh Lord, grant that we would taste and see that You are good by faith, at Your table, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Neglecting So Great a Salvation - Hebrews 2:1-4

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 2. We're going to be looking at verses 1 to 4 this morning as we continue our way through this great letter together.

Last week and the week before we were looking at Hebrews chapter 1 and we saw from the very beginning that Hebrews is a book about Jesus. You can't get out of the first three verses without seeing that this is a book focused on the person and work of Jesus. And over and over in this book there is a theme that Jesus is better, that He is greater, that He is more excellent than, that He is superior to. In fact, I had an interesting conversation with one of our elders last week. He said, "Why is that word, 'better,' bothering me?" He said, "Jesus isn't just better, He's in an entirely different category!" Well that, in fact, is precisely the point that the author of Hebrews is making with that comparative, "better," because he knows that the people that he is writing to — this is a congregation populated with Hebrew Christians. They have been reared on the Torah, they have an enormously high respect for the Law of God, the Word of God, for Moses' deliverances, for the miracles of the Old Testament, and they have such a high opinion of that that some of them are tempted not to realize how great Jesus is. And so the comparative comes in there — Jesus is better. The whole point is to press home the supremacy and the all sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And so we saw that as we studied the first chapter of this book together over the last two Sundays.

This morning, the author gets to his first exhortation in the book. You will see a pattern in this book of doctrine and then application, of theology and then exhortation. The Bible never leaves its theology hanging in the air. It always brings it to bear on the practical and eternal issues of life and that's exactly what happens in this passage. Having spent a chapter arguing for the superiority of Jesus Christ, for the supremacy of Jesus Christ, for the all sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the author of Hebrews is now going to answer the question, "So what? What's the significance of that? What's the implication of that? What's the practical effect of that truth in our lives?" He's going to press that home in the passage today.

And I want you to be on the lookout for four things that we're going to see as we read these verses together. The first thing is this. In verse 1, the author of Hebrews is going to stress the importance of the message of Jesus. He's just spent a chapter giving you a message about Jesus' person and work. Now he's going to press home the importance of it. You'll see that in verse 1. Then, as you look at verse 2 and 3, he will say that the consequences of ignoring the message of Jesus are enormous. So first he stresses the importance of the message of Jesus; then in verses 2 and 3 he shows the enormous consequences of ignoring the message of Jesus. Then, at the end of verse 3, he will confirm the message of Jesus; or rather he will show you how the message of Jesus has been confirmed. And then in verse 4, he will show you the divine testimony to the message of Jesus. So the importance of the message of Jesus, the consequences of ignoring the message of Jesus, the confirmation of the message of Jesus, and the divine testimony to the message of Jesus. Be on the lookout for that as we read this passage together today. Let's pray before we do.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. You mean it for Your glory and our good. Help us, we pray, not to miss a thing that You say to us and want us to understand in the hearing of this Word today. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it:

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

My guess is, this morning, that there are not many of us who are gathered here who are ready to deny or reject Jesus outright, but we may be in danger of drifting away from Him, of underestimating Him, of not adequately appreciating who He is and what He has done, of taking Him for granted. And the author of Hebrews is concerned to address just that kind of thing in this passage. And I want you to see three things this morning that we learn here.

THE GOSPEL MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

The first thing that the author of Hebrews says is that the Gospel must be taken seriously. That's what he's about in verse 1. Look with me at verse 1. "For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. " What he's saying is that the Gospel must be taken seriously. What he has outlined for us in Hebrews chapter 1 is the Gospel. He's pointed us to Jesus, he's told us who Jesus is and what He accomplished in His work. So he's pointing to the person and work of Jesus and that is the essence of the Gospel message. It's a declaration from God to us about who Jesus is and what He has done for our salvation. And the author of Hebrews is, in the very first verse of chapter 2, saying, "You've got to take that Gospel seriously. You must not ignore that Gospel message. We must," as he says, "pay much closer attention to what we have learned. " He's stressing the importance of our paying attention to what has been heard — the Gospel message, the message about Jesus.

And he stresses it because in this congregation there are apparently some people who are being tempted to abandon Jesus and go back to their Jewish heritage. They have come out of Judaism into the discipleship of Jesus Christ and they have acknowledged Jesus Christ and they've been baptized and they've been enfolded into the congregation, but now some of them, perhaps under the influence of fellow Jewish teachers in the time, have been saying, "You know, you can have everything you have in Christianity without rejecting your Jewish heritage just by coming back and following our brand of Messianic Judaism. " It's entirely possible that the kind of teaching that we know that was happening amongst the Essene community — you remember when we found the Dead Sea Scrolls, fifty, sixty, seventy years ago? We found out that they had been housed in an Essene camp of Jews. This is a special kind of Judaism and it taught a lot of things that are very, very similar to the things that you find in the New Testament but there's no emphasis on Jesus Christ. And it's entirely possible that this congregation has people in it that have been tempted to abandon Jesus and go back to their Jewish heritage. And the author of Hebrews says, "No, no, no. You've got to take the message of Jesus seriously. You cannot neglect it; you cannot drift away from Him. " And in the face of that temptation, this preacher is stressing the seriousness of the Gospel.

Well, there may be very few of us here this morning that are being tempted to abandon Jesus and to go to Judaism, but though that may be less of a danger than an outright or overt rejection of the Gospel, it is entirely possible that we are vulnerable to apathy or to indifference to Jesus or to Gospel truth. And the author of Hebrews is speaking to us today and he's saying, "You must not neglect the Gospel. The Gospel must be heard, it must be believed, it must be embraced. " That's the first thing. And really, that's the one point of the message; he's just going to emphasize it in these next two points that we cover.

SOMEONE GREATER THAN MOSES

The second thing that I want you to see you'll see especially in verses 2 and 3. And the point here is, the Gospel must be taken seriously because someone greater than Moses is here. The Gospel must be taken seriously because someone greater than Moses is here. Here, he's addressing not just the importance of the Gospel message; he's addressing its consequence. Look at verse 2. "Since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" His point is this. If the disobedience of God's people in the Old Testament resulted in God justly judging them for their sins, what will happen if you reject the way of salvation that He has provided for you so that you are not condemned for disobedience to His Word?

We read about this, this morning. Turn with me to Jeremiah 14 and 15 again. Did you hear those chilling words that Ralph read during the Scripture reading? For instance, in Jeremiah 14 verse 11, God says to the prophet Jeremiah, "Do not pray for this people. " Does that not send chills up your spine? God says to His prophets, "Don't pray for these people. " Why? Because they're hypocrites! You know, they make a noise about believing in God but they break His laws and they're not repentant and they don't care! And so God says to the prophet, "Don't pray for them," and then He announces that he is going to pronounce judgment on them. Look at verses 13 and following. What's the judgment going to be? "Famine, pestilence, and sword. " And then He even specifies, after saying "famine, pestilence, and sword" again in chapter 15, if you look in verse 3 of chapter 15 He even tells you specific kinds of destroyers that He is going to appoint for them — "the sword, dogs, birds, and beasts" are going to be used as the instruments of His just judgment on them. Well the author of Hebrews is saying, "If God brought just judgment on the people in the Old Testament who disobeyed His Law and you neglect the way of salvation He is providing, do you think things are going to go better for you? You must take the Gospel seriously! It is the way God has provided for your salvation!"

Some of you have been following the fascinating story of Lance Armstrong and I know some of you are not and you have no idea what I'm talking about; I met a number of them after the first service. So let me just say, Lance Armstrong was an American cyclist who won the Tour de France, which is one of the most important bicycle races in the world, he won it seven times. He appeared in Olympic races; he was the most famous American cyclist maybe ever. But over the years, he has been dogged by accusations that he was using illegal performance enhancing drugs, that he was doing blood-doping to get his oxygen level up so that he could perform at a higher level than the other cyclists were able to perform and thus he was cheating. And he has recently been stripped of all of his titles by the cycling federations here in the United States and in the world and has come under intense legal scrutiny. But all along, he has denied the truth of the allegations. This week, he went to the high priestess of American culture, Oprah Winfrey, and he made a confession. And he admitted - and now understand that he has actually sued people, he has litigated against people who have accused him of doing this illegal blood-doping, and he admitted it. Maybe some of you saw those programs; I wonder what you thought about what you've heard.

But here's the interesting thing. He wrote an autobiography seven or eight years ago; I think it's called, It's Not About the Bike. In that autobiography at one point he's musing about God. He says he's not affiliated with any particular church and he's musing about God. And he says something like this, "If I am going to be judged someday by some-Body," and he puts the "B" in a capital, "by some-Body, if there's a judgment for me by some-Body, I hope it won't be on the basis of what church I've joined or whether I've been baptized, but I hope that He will take into account the whole of my life. " Do you want to think about that again? And you see, the author of Hebrews is saying, "When you're standing there that day you don't want the basis of your innocence or your guilt, your acceptance or your condemnation to be that some-Body taking into account the whole of your life because you will be condemned. " You know, we see in our voyeuristic culture, every once in awhile the curtain pulled back on major celebrity figures. But you know, most of us in here would not want the curtain pulled back on our lives and the whole world looking at us. And I think if we know ourselves we wouldn't want to stand before God and say, "God, accept me because You've taken into account the whole of my life. "

The author of Hebrews is saying, "You have got to take the Gospel seriously because I'll show you what happened to some people who were judged on the basis of God taking into account the whole of their lives. " When you're standing there on that day you want to be standing there robed in the righteousness of Christ, you want to be clothed in the cleansing, forgiving blood of Jesus Christ, you want to be standing there in who Jesus is and what He has done for you, not in your own deserving, not in your own works. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Surely, surely if the Old Testament people of God were judged justly for their sins, how much worse will the judgment be for us? We've heard the Gospel, we've heard the claims of Christ, and yet we've rejected Him and we've said, 'You know in the last day I hope we're judged taking into account the whole of our lives. '" And he said, "Do you think that's going to go well for you? No. " We've got to take the Gospel seriously.

THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN CONFIRMED

AND GOD HIMSELF HAS TESTIFIED TO IT

And then he doesn't just throw that out there. He doesn't state that case; he presses it home by showing the proof, the evidence, the testimony that God has given to you for it. And I want you to see this in verses 3 and 4. Look at the end of verse 3 and then verse 4. "It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. " Isn't this fascinating? What he's saying here is that we need to take the Gospel seriously because it's true. We need to take the Gospel seriously because it's true. It's been confirmed and God Himself has testified to it. That's what the point of the end of verse 3 and all of verse 4 is — God has confirmed it through the witness of the apostles. It's interesting — by saying what he says in verse 3 you know that this congregation is not a congregation of early Christians who had had direct or firsthand knowledge of Jesus. They had learned what they knew about Jesus from the preaching of apostles or apostolic helpers. So the message about Jesus they had heard, they had not heard from Jesus directly but just like you and I have heard it, through the witness, through the testimony of apostles.

And the author of Hebrews presses home that as a very good thing. Because isn't it interesting, it's not just one person who's made a claim to you, it's all of these apostles have witnessed to, they've confirmed the message that I'm preaching to you. You know when I stand up on Sunday morning and preach the Word of God to you, I am not preaching to you a revelation that I got in my closet this week and that I, only I, among all the mortal beings on earth have ever heard. I'm preaching the same Bible that thousands of other Gospel preaching ministers are preaching around the world and that two thousand years of Christians, based on the apostles, based on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit have been preaching. And that ought to encourage you.

CONFIRMED BY SIGNS AND WONDERS AND MIRACLES

And then he says in verse 4, not only that, but God Himself has confirmed the truth of this by signs and wonders and miracles. Now understand, people back then were not just more gullible than we are. You know sometimes you look at the miracles in the Bible and you say, "Well we're so sophisticated and smart. We know that those things don't happen. " No, they were not more gullible than we are. You know if you think we're more sophisticated and intelligent and less gullible than they are just pick up your major daily newspaper and turn to the cartoon page and read the horoscope. We're very advanced in our culture; we're not gullible at all. I mean, I thought that Manti Te'o had a girlfriend! We're not gullible!

But understand this — miracles didn't just happen all the time in Bible times. You didn't just wake up in the morning and have a miracle. If you've studied the Bible, over the six thousand years of history that it covers, there are only three major periods in those six thousand years when miracles happened. Miracles happened in the time of Moses, they happened in the times of Elijah and Elisha, and then they happened in Jesus' ministry. Even John the Baptist didn't do miracles. He was right on the forefront of Jesus' ministry; even John the Baptist didn't do miracles. Miracles didn't just happen every day. These people weren't gullible. When they saw a miracle they knew they were seeing something special. And the reasons, the author of Hebrews tells us, that God gave those signs and wonders and miracles, was to attest the truth that was being proclaimed. You see, we believe that the message of Jesus is true and we accept it not just because it's good, not just because we want to be forgiven, but because it's true. C. S. Lewis, sixty or seventy years ago, stressed it's so important for us to understand that we embrace Christianity not just because it's good but because it's true.

And I want to say, that's especially important today. Things have changed a lot in the last thirty years. I've thought about this a good bit. And one thing is this. I am almost certain that the acid of unbelief and the toxic allergy to truth that exists now was not as pervasive and was not as powerful thirty years ago. You know, you wake up in the world that we live in today and it is almost immediately implausible to scores and scores and hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of people that the Gospel is true. It's implausible to them. It seems impossible to them that this could be true. And here's the author of Hebrews, two thousand years before that toxic unbelief ever took hold of our culture saying to Christians, then and now, "The Gospel is true. It's attested; it's confirmed. God Himself testified to it. "

It's very interesting. If you look at two other major world religions, if you look at Islam and if you look at Mormonism, the central books that contain the truth of those religions, the Koran and the Book of Mormon, came from one man each over a very short period of time. And the entire religion is based upon what that one man says was revelation to him personally from God. Which, incidentally in both cases, no one else could witness to, confirm, or attest — no one. No one around them was in a position to confirm anything that went on. Whereas the Bible was given over a fifteen hundred year period written by dozens of different authors and had hundreds of witnesses attesting to the same message. That should encourage you, Christian. God even gave the Word to the world in such a way that its message could be attested. Why? Because He's concerned about truth! He doesn't want us to live our lives believing fairy tales! He wants us to live our lives believing the truth! And so the author of Hebrews is saying, "The Gospel must be taken seriously because it's true, it has eternal consequences, and it's the only way of salvation. "

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Work it into our hearts. Grant us to believe in this generation where there is toxic unbelief in the air that we breath, grant that we would believe. Especially our young people, Lord God, grant that they would see through the cynicism of their day and time and that they would embrace the Gospel, that they would walk by the old paths and that they would cling to the old rugged cross. We ask these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Now Margaret Clarkson, in her wonderful hymn, if you'll turn to number 181, really hits on all of these points — "We Come, O Christ, to You. " Let's sing it to God's praise.

Now receive the blessing from the only one who can bless you and you be truly blessed.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

By the Grace of God, He Tasted Death - Hebrews 2:5-9

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 2. We're going to be looking at verses 5 to 9 this morning as we continue this series in the letter or the sermon of the Hebrews. We've seen already in this book, repeated a number of times in Hebrews chapter 1, the theme that Jesus is better. That's the author's way of driving home the point that there's nowhere you can go better than Jesus. No matter what it is that you're tempted to trust in, Jesus is better. It's the way the author is celebrating Jesus' all sufficiency, Jesus' supremacy. He's saying to you over and over, "Jesus is enough," and "He's more than enough," and "There's nowhere else apart from Jesus that you can go and get better or get enough. Only Jesus can answer your needs. Only Jesus can satisfy. He's the best; He's better. " And that theme has echoed throughout the studies that we have had so far in this book.

Last week, as we looked at Hebrews 2 verses 1 to 4, we saw the first challenge of the book. And the challenge was for us to take the Gospel seriously. And part of the way that the author in those four verses pressed home the point that we need to take the Gospel seriously is to point to us to the importance of Jesus' message, the importance of the consequences of ignoring Jesus' message, and that theme continues on in the passage we're going to read today. He's going to continue to press on our hearts the message to take the Gospel seriously by pointing to us who it is that we're dealing with. We're dealing with Jesus. And who is He? He is exalted above the angels. The dominion of the world has been put into His hands. And that's emphasized in the passage that we're going to read and the first few verses look especially at verses 6, 7, and 8 by the author quoting Hebrews 8 — or Psalm 8. So the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 8 and he says, "Look this psalm, which speaks about God giving man dominion, a dominion over the earth that our first parents, Adam and Eve, lost because of their rebellion, God has reinvested that dominion now in a second Adam, whose name is Jesus. And that's why we need to take the Gospel seriously, because the Jesus of the Gospel message is a Jesus who has dominion over everything. "

Now today I want us to look especially at four phrases in this section. This is an exceedingly rich section and even these four little phrases, all of which come from verses 8 and 9 — go ahead and be looking there — these four phrases, you could meditate on them for the rest of your life and not exhaust their richness. But as we read, I want you to be on the lookout for them. The first phrase you'll find in verse 8 — "He left nothing outside his control. " So He, God, left nothing outside His, that is, Jesus', control. God left nothing outside of Jesus' control. Have you ever meditated on that before? God left nothing outside Jesus' control. Be on the lookout for that because we're going to think about that together this morning.

And then in that same verse, at the very end of verse 8, he goes on to say this — "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. " Understanding that is one of the great keys to living the Christian life. So I want you to think about that; we're going to be focusing on it together today. Then look at verse 9. Two more phrases — "Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. " Crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death? Yes, in fact, that phrase will prove to be the key to understanding the principles of the Christian life that have been articulated in those two earlier phrases in verse 8. And then it culminates with this word. Look at the very end of verse 9 — "So that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. " Be on the lookout for those things because we're going to concentrate on them together.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and we need it. We do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So teach us, Lord. Speak, Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 5:

"Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,

'What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. '

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The book of Hebrews is a book about Jesus. The book of Hebrews is a book about the Christian life. Those are not contradictions. The book of Hebrews is about Jesus. We've seen it from the very beginning verses. There is a radical focus on Jesus. This is a book of Jesusology. It is filled with the study of Jesus. But it is also, at the same time, a book about how we live the Christian life and we see that very clearly in the passage today. It's all focused on Jesus, this whole passage is about who Jesus is, what God has bestowed on Him, and what He has done for us. But all of those things are told to us so that we can live the Christian life. Do you understand that if we do not grasp the four truths that are recorded for us, especially in verses 8 and 9, in this passage, we cannot live the Christian life? And all of these truths are about Jesus and they're about His providential rule. And so I want us to think about them together today because all of us need to know how to live the Christian life. And all of us here today have brought out own troubles and challenges to living the Christian life with us this morning. And we need to hear the message of this word.

HE LEFT NOTHING OUTSIDE OF HIS CONTROL

And the first one I want you to see in verse 8. It's actually emphasized four times in these few verses. It's a theme that culminates with the words, "He left nothing outside his control," but I want you to look back at verse 5 and then down to verse 8 again and I want you to see four times in this passage God pressing home the same truth — "God subjected the world to come," by implication in this passage to Jesus. Then look at verse 8 — "putting everything in subjection under his feet" — God subjected the world to come to Jesus. God subjected everything to Him. He put everything in subjection under Jesus' feet. Then again, "now in putting everything in subjection to him" — there's the third time. And the fourth time, "He left nothing outside his control. " Do you hear what God is saying over and over just in case you and I, who can be a little bit slow might miss it, do you hear what He's saying? God has put everything under Jesus' feet. Do you believe that? That God has put everything under Jesus' feet? That Jesus is in charge of absolutely everything and that God has given Him that authority? Do you believe that? Do you believe that is true almost all the time, most all the time, some of the time? No, no, no. The author of Hebrews is saying that is true all of the time. There are no categories outside from under that which is in subjection to Him! Everything has been put under Jesus' feet. That truth is so important for living the Christian life. You can't live the Christian life unless you believe that truth.

You understand the point of quoting Hebrews 8 — of Psalm 8? The author of Hebrews is saying, "Look, when God created Adam and Eve, remember He gave them dominion over this world. He said to Eve and to Adam, 'Rule the world! I'm putting the world in subjection to you!' And what did they do? They rebelled against God and their dominion was wrecked. " And the author of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 8 to say, "But in God's kindness, He has given us a second Adam who is flesh and blood, a Man, not an angel but a Man, just like us. And He has given Him dominion over this world. He's got the whole world in His hand. " That's what the author of Hebrews is saying to us. God has given Jesus dominion for us to restore it to us. He's got the whole world in His hands. And my friends, believing that is one of the great challenges of the Christian life.

AT PRESENT WE DO NOT YET SEE EVERYTHING IN SUBJECTION TO HIM

And that becomes much more sharply focused when we see the second thing. Look again at verse 8 because the very next thing that the author of Hebrews will say is this. "At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. " And you're saying, "Tell me about it! That's the understatement of the century! I look out at this world and it's going crazy. I look at my country and I wonder, 'Is this the same country I grew up in?' And I look around my family and my life — unfaithful spouses, unhappy marriages, wandering children, unbelieving sons, rebellious daughters, estranged parents, broken friendships. You mean, that's under subjection to Jesus too? It doesn't look like it. " "At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. " Do you understand what the author of Hebrews is saying? He's saying that every obscene thing that you can imagine, though it doesn't look like it, is in subjection to Jesus. There is nothing that is outside the realm of the control of His power. And my friends, we have to know this just to be able to wake up in the morning and keep on going. And the author of Hebrews is telling us about this because he wants us to know who this Jesus is who is at the center of the message of the Gospel. He's not just some kindly spiritual man giving you some tips on how to live a little bit better life. He rules this world because the Father has given Him that authority.

Now that's got to cause you some tension. You know, you say, "Well Ligon, you Christians tell me that I've got to believe that Jesus is in control of this world but I'm looking at my life right now and it doesn't look like Jesus is in control of my life and it doesn't look like Jesus is in control of this culture or of this world. It doesn't look like it. " The author of Hebrews is waiting for you in this next phrase. Look at verse 9. This phrase is absolutely essential to you learning to live in the tension of those first two phrases, that Jesus has had everything put in subjection to Him but it doesn't look like it yet.

CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR

BECAUSE OF THE SUFFERING OF DEATH

And here's what he says. "Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. " We see Him. We don't see everything in subjection to Him but we do see Him, "Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. " In other words, the author of Hebrews says, "Okay, you're living in this tension, you know that you're supposed to believe that everything is in subjection to Jesus, but there is something in your experience that has broken your heart. It has crushed you. And you can't put it together with the idea that Jesus is in control of everything. " And he says, "Okay dear friend, this is what I want you to do. I want you to look at the incarnation of Jesus Christ. I want you to look at His experience and I want you to see this. I want you to see that God bestowed glory and honor on Him because of His suffering and death. And I want you to bring that truth to bear on your own experience. "

In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying this. The God who bestowed glory on Jesus is the God who ordained suffering for Jesus. The God who bestowed glory on Jesus is the God who ordained suffering for Jesus. And not only that, He bestowed glory on Him because of the suffering. And my friends, if we're believers we're united to Him in His life, death, and resurrection. And do you know what that means? Do you know what that means for us? It means this. It's not only Jesus Himself who gains glory through suffering but all of His followers. So when you look at your experience and you say, "This shouldn't be happening to me!" The Father points to Jesus the Son and says, "Do you think that should have been happening to Him?"

You know, here's the interesting thing my friends. Even when I experience things in my life that are not due to my sin, and all of us experience hard things in this life that have nothing to do with our personal sin. Our personal sin hasn't brought them upon us. We may sin in our response to them but they are things that none of us would have chosen and none of us are — they're just part of providence. But you know, even when those things happen to me, I can always say this. "I have gotten better than I deserve. " No matter how bad it is, I can say, "I have gotten better than I deserve. " You can never say that about Jesus. Jesus never got better than He deserved in this life. You do understand that? You and I always, no matter how bad it is, have gotten better than we deserve. Jesus never got better than He deserved. And so the Father, He's pointing us to Jesus and He's saying, "When you can't make sense of your trial, of your trouble, of your suffering, I want you to look at My Son on whom I bestowed glory and honor, but I did it because of His suffering. And I want you to trust that just as His suffering was under My sovereignty and thus in subjection to Jesus, your suffering is under My sovereignty and thus in subjection to Jesus. "

Now at that point, Christians start doing something like this. "Okay, Lord, I really, really, really want to believe that. I really do. I want to believe that. I want to believe that everything has been put into subjection to Jesus. " But when we start, when we take that first step of really, really wanting to believe that, what starts welling up in our throats? "Why?!" Did you hear it? When Billy was reading the passage this morning where Jeremiah is given the responsibility to preach this message of judgment and Jeremiah, finally it comes out of his throat, "Why this ceaseless pain, Lord?" And I don't know whether the Lord ever answered that question to Jeremiah; I really don't. I'm pretty sure He never answered Job's, "Why?" You know, you say, "Lord, I want to trust You. I want to believe that Jesus is in charge. I want to believe that everything is in subjection to Jesus but I want to know why this is happening to me!"

SO THAT BY THE GRACE OF GOD HE MIGHT TASTE DEATH FOR EVERYONE

And that's where the fourth phrase comes in, my friends, because the Lord doesn't always explain to us why what is happening to us is happening to us. But here's what He does. He says, "I'm going to explain to you why what happened to Jesus happened to Jesus so that you can trust Me when you don't know why. I'm going to explain to you why what happened to Jesus happened to Jesus so that you can trust Me when you don't know why and when I haven't given you an answer for what is happening to you. " And here's what He says. Look at these incredibly rich words — "so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. " You do understand that in that little phrase you have the Gospel in a nutshell. And here's the Father's answer to you. The "Why?" has choked up in your throat and the Father says, "Child, look at your elder brother, Jesus, look at My firstborn Son, My only begotten Son, Jesus. Look at Him. Why did I ordain suffering and death for Him? So that He could taste death for you and you could finally be alive. That's why. Why the suffering in His life? For your everlasting joy. Because in My grace and love I refused to allow you to be destroyed by your sin, and instead, My Son suffered and died in your place so that you might have life. "

And you say to me, "But it's still hard because there are so many 'Whys?' in my life that I want an answer for and I don't have an answer for and I've cried out to God and He's not told me. And the Father is saying, "Yes child, that's right. The many whys that you have cried out to Me, like Jeremiah and like the psalmist in the middle of the night and I've never answered you, but I have answered this and it's a bigger question — Why did I ordain that My Son would suffer? I ordained that My Son would suffer because I loved you and so that My grace could save you. Now you can trust Me knowing that with the whys that I don't answer because if I can have a good design in that I can have a good design in very unanswered prayer that you have ever uttered. "

Do you realize how that changes our lives? Suddenly we are not the victims of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, nor of a cruel and capricious God. But our suffering and our troubles and our trials, they're meaningful. And what's more, if I understand this passage, they're necessary to the glory that God plans to bestow on us like He bestowed on His Son. And there will come a day where it will all come clear. As clear as it is now to us in God's design with Jesus, it will all come clear. And all the whys will be turned to praise. That's why we need these four truths to live the Christian life, because we are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. So how are we going to live in that? By faith in the Jesus who rules everything, absolutely everything, even when it doesn't look like it, knowing that His suffering and death led to Him being crowned with glory and honor and so it will certainly be the case with us, because we're united to Him. And what was God's good purpose in that suffering? That a multitude that no man can number, from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, would be gathered to be with Him forever.

Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you take your bulletins in hand and look at the bottom of the Morning Guide and we'll sing Psalm 8 to God's praise.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Surprised By Suffering? - Hebrews 2:10-13

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 2. We're going to be looking at verses 10 to 13 together this morning as we continue this series called, "Better. " We took the title of the series, "Better," from the book of Hebrews itself. We've already seen that word appear in Hebrews chapter 1 where there is a repeated emphasis on Jesus being better, superior, more excellent than. That comparative, that superlative, is used by the author of Hebrews to emphasize to us that Jesus is enough, that Jesus is all that we need. "Less would not satisfy; more is not to be desired," William Guthrie once said of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that message is emphasized over and over again in Hebrews chapter 1.

In Hebrews 2 verses 5 to 9, the passage that we studied last week, we saw the Lord emphasize who it is that we're dealing with when we deal with Jesus Christ by teaching us that God has placed everything under Jesus' feet, absolutely everything, even when it doesn't look like it. Even when there are things in life that don't make sense, the author of Hebrews presses home the trust, "God has put everything, absolutely everything, under Jesus' feet, even when it doesn't look like it. " Now he picks up on that thought in the passage that we're going to be studying today. In fact, if you'll look at the transition phrase in verse 10, the very first few words of verse 10, he says, "It was fitting that he…For it was fitting that he. " He's picking up on the language. It's almost like he's saying, "Therefore, in light of the fact that God has put everything under Jesus' feet, absolutely everything, even though it doesn't always look like it, it was fitting that he should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. " Now we'll explore the meaning of that phrase.

The passage really comes in two parts. Verse 10 emphasizes that God has ordained the sufferings of His Son to perfect Him as Savior and to save us for glory. Now there's enough depth in that sentence right there for us to meditate upon the rest of our lives and we'd never ever be able to exhaust it. But that's the truth of verse 10. And then in verses 11 to 13, if you haven't gotten the encouragement that verse 10 is supposed to give you, the author circles back around and he hits you from another angle and he says, "Do you understand what it means that you are united to this Savior who was perfected in suffering so that you could be saved for glory? Do you understand what it means to be united to Him?" And then both in this amazing statement that we're going to read in verse 11 and then in the three Scripture passages that are quoted in verses 12 and 13, he just says over and over again what it means to be united to Jesus.

Now all of this helps us when we are trying to figure out difficulties, trials, struggles, and suffering in our own lives. So let's look to God in prayer and prepare to read and hear His Word. Let's pray.

Father, this is Your Word and we need it. It is possible, O Lord, that we can read Your Word and miss its glorious comforting, saving truth for us, maybe because we're distracted — we're thinking about other things — maybe because we're so troubled that we can't even see straight, we can't think straight, we can't even listen because we're so preoccupied with something that's burdening our hearts. Lord, especially if there are people here this morning that are struggling with that, their own circumstances are so overwhelming to them they can't even hear, I pray that by the Holy Spirit You would block out the noise of life so that they can hear the Word of life and be restored. Now bless the reading and hearing of this Word in Jesus name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews 2 verse 10:

"For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,

'I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise. '

And again,

'I will put my trust in him. '

And again,

'Behold, I and the children God has given me. '"

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

I want to ask you a question this morning. When trials and disappointments, when difficulties and losses and crosses, when crises and suffering come, do you ever find yourself surprised? Does it ever hit you out of the blue and knock you off balance? And I'm not just talking about that gasp for breath when you're just trying to survive; I'm talking about your spiritual response to it. You know, do you ever wonder, "Lord, what in the world is going on? Why is this happening to me? This makes no sense. I don't see Your hand in it. I don't see any good that can come out of this. I almost feel like You're against me in this. " Are you ever surprised by your suffering?

Well one key to coming to grips with our disappointments and losses and crises and sufferings in this life, one key to our coming to grips with those sufferings and losses and crosses is to consider Jesus' suffering and ours. And I don't just mean to say glibly, "Well, Jesus suffered more than we did and therefore we ought to put our sufferings into perspective. " That's not how the author of Hebrews addresses suffering in this passage. He addresses it in altogether a more wondrous way. And I want you to see four things that he says to us in these words.

THE ONE AT WORK IN JESUS' SUFFERING

The first thing I want you to see is this. Just ask yourself this question as you look at the first few words of verse 10. "Who is it who is at work in Jesus' suffering? Who is it who is at work in Jesus' suffering?" And then listen to what the author of Hebrews says because this is going to help you come to grips with your suffering if you understand who is it that is at work in Jesus' suffering. We read, "For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist. " Just stop right there for a second and think about that little phrase. Now I know that when you look at that phrase, "For whom and by whom all things exist," you're tempted to say, "Well that's just a very poetic way of saying God. The author's talking about God there. God's the one who's doing something. He's the subject to the verb in this sentence and he just says it in a poetic, eloquent way — 'the one for whom and by whom all things exist. '" But if you pass over that phrase too quickly my friends, you'll miss a blessing that you need in your trials and suffering because the author of Hebrews is telling you that the one for whom and by whom all things are is the one who is at work in Jesus' suffering and yours. And that means your suffering has meaning and it means that your suffering is not without meaning. And that is huge.

I want you to think about that for a second because without God the cruelest things that happen in this world are simply something else that happened. If there is no one from whom and by whom and for whom all things exist, then everything that happens in this life, the most obscene, cruel, horrific, horrible things are just something else that happened. If this universe has no Creator from whom and by whom and for whom all things exist, then there is no one for whom all things exist and there is no purpose for which it exists. And unbeliever, you have to face that. I'm so glad you're here with us today or perhaps listening to us on radio or watching on television. I'm glad you're here and listening. But I do want you to understand that if there is no one God from whom and by whom and for whom all things exist there can be no ultimate meaning in this world. And that means that when a father is holding a child who has been slain at Sandyhook by a madman, it means nothing. It's just something else that happened because there is no ultimate meaning.

If there's not one from whom and for whom and by whom all things exist, imposing at it were, His meaning on this reality that He has created, there is no meaning. But for the believer, because there is one for whom and by whom all things exist, and the believer knows that, and because that one for whom and by whom all things exist is at work in Jesus' suffering we may be confident that He is also at work in ours. And we may be assured that nothing we endure is wasted, nothing is unpurposeful, nothing is meaningless, and nothing doesn't matter to Him. Not the smallest thing that we're undergoing in our life is a matter of non-concern to Him. He is concerned about every iota of His people's trials and it is all part of a grand design because He is the one for whom all things exist. You see, he's just given you the first key to grappling with trials and crises and suffering in your experience. The one who's behind everything invests everything with meaning.

THE GRACIOUS PURPOSE OF THE FATHER

Second, don't miss this phrase. It's still in verse 10. "It was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory. " Now what do we learn about the one for whom and by whom all things exist in this little phrase? What do we learn about Him and His designs? We learn what He's up to! What's He up to? What's His purpose? His purpose is what? "To bring many sons to glory. " What we're seeing in that little phrase is the kind and gracious purposes of the loving heavenly Father at work in His plan. We're being told that when you look at Jesus' sufferings and when you look at Jesus on the cross and you say, "Why, O God, would You allow Your Son, Your only Son whom You love, to go through that?" He says, "Because I want to bring you to glory, because I want you to be My sons. I want you to be My inheriting children. I want you to be a part of My family. I want you to be in your Father's house. I want you to be gathered around My knees and I want you to enjoy blessing and glory forever. That's why I'm doing that; I'm up to something. "

And when we can see Him at work in Jesus' sufferings that way we can also know that He is up to something in our lives. If He can use that to bring many sons to glory, is there anything He can't use? If I can get you to think in the Pauline categories and language of Romans 8:32 what does he say? "He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, freely give us all things?" If God has given His Son in order that He might bring many things to glory, He will — many sons to glory — He will not waste a single solitary event of suffering in your life in order to bring you to glory.

PERFECTED BY SUFFERING

Now we finally get to the third point and that's what the whole verse is driving at. Just read it without those two clauses intervening. Verse 10 — "For it was fitting that he should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. " We ought to all just fall on our faces right now and worship! You will not in this world understand the profundity of the sentence that we've just read. You and I will never in this world understand how profound it is to say that it is appropriate that Jesus be perfected through His suffering. The question that the author of Hebrews is pressing on his audience, his readers, and you and me is simply this. "How is it that God brought about this grand design of His to bring many sons to glory?" And the answer is absolutely shocking. The answer is - He brought about this grand design by making the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. He made the perfect, perfect. He perfected the perfect one, Jesus Christ.

Now this is the passage, if you study different English Bible translations, or if you remember like I do hearing the King James read in your ears growing up in church, you know this is the passage that's translated in the King James, "the captain of our salvation. " And modern translations grapple to do justice to this little Greek word. Our English Standard Version that's the pew Bible here says, "the founder of salvation. " The New American Standard says, "the author of salvation. " The NIV says, "the pioneer of our salvation. " The King James says, "the captain of our salvation. " You can see the English translators wrestling to do justice to the richness of this world. He is the captain, the founder, the author, the pioneer of our salvation.

But here's the mind-blowing thing that we're told. God perfects Him through suffering. What in the world does that mean? It cannot mean that He moves Him from being imperfect to being perfect. He's already dispensed with the possibility of that idea in chapter 1. He's already said Jesus is better than anything. So how do you perfect perfection? The point that's being driven home for those of you who are suffering is that He is the perfect Savior for you in your suffering because He Himself has been perfected in suffering. Do you understand what the author of Hebrews is saying? That when God comes to your rescue in your suffering He does not do that from outside. He doesn't say, "You there, you there who are suffering, I'm going to help you with My power. There, I helped you. " The way He has rescued us in our suffering it to come inside that suffering and He has done that in the person of His Son.

Do you know how it is when you are going through some excruciating experience where you have dear friends, dear friends that you love and that you know love you tenaciously and are going to be with you every step of the way through whatever it is that you're going through. And at some point you're talking to them and they're trying to comfort you and they're grasping for the words and sometimes something like this comes out, "I know what you're going through is hard. " And you genuinely appreciate those words and those hugs and those tears and that presence, but one of the things that's going on in your mind when that friend says, because that friend hasn't gone through what you're going through right now, one of the things that's going on in your mind is, "You have no idea how hard what I'm going through is because you haven't gone through this. "

Do you understand what the author of Hebrews is saying? You can never say that to Jesus. He could say it to you, but you can never say that to Jesus because when you begin to look up to God and cry out to Him with hot tears for help in the middle of your suffering, He's not out there somewhere; He's right next to you. You turn your head and He's right there, and He's experienced things that you have never experienced and will experience. God has subjugated Satan and sin and Satan's purposes in your suffering by subjecting Himself in His Son to suffering and so He has exploded Satan's designs and sin's dominion, even in your suffering, and has won victory in what the captain of your salvation has done. That is why He is made perfect in suffering! The perfect got perfecter. He is exactly the one you want to cry out to in your time of trouble. What did we just sing? "Friends may fail me and foes assail me, but He, my Savior, makes me whole because He's gone through this in me and with me and for me and He will never leave me and He's there when I need Him. " You see, how does God bring about His design to bring many sons to glory? Through the perfecting suffering of His Son He saves you to glory.

But if you still haven't gotten comfort, if you still haven't gotten help he's waiting for you one more time to get you again from the other side. Look at verse 11. And here again is a sentence that I could never ever do justice to. Listen to this sentence! "For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. " Can I have a semester to talk to you about that? "For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source!" Do you see what he's saying? He's speaking about Jesus as being the one who sanctifies us. It's so interesting; so often in the New Testament it's the Holy Spirit who's emphasized as the one who sanctifies us but here it's Jesus. And that's because the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, always work together in everything that they do for our salvation. So when the Holy Spirit is working for our sanctification, and He does, and He is, Jesus is working for our sanctification. And so he speaks of Jesus as our sanctifier. "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified," that's us, that's those who believe in Jesus, "all have one source. "

You see what the author is doing? He's asking you, "How is it that your sufferings and Jesus' sufferings connect? What's the connection there?" The connection is, Jesus the sanctifier, in His suffering, has been united to you by faith by the Holy Spirit in the Gospel so that you are now part of His body. You are one with Him. You are united to Him. You are in communion with Him. So that His sufferings belong to your benefit and your sufferings are His. That's why Paul could call the sufferings that the church was experiencing "that which is lacking in Christ's sufferings. " Isn't that beautiful? That the sufferings of your life, believer, Paul says are Jesus' sufferings. That's how closely identified He is to you.

Watch the flow of argument. In verse 10, he says this. God saved you by perfecting His Son through suffering so should it surprise you that He prepares you for glory through suffering since He saved you through the suffering of His Son? Since He was gathering many sons to glory through the suffering of His Son, should it surprise you that He prepares you for glory through suffering?

And then if you didn't get that he says, "Okay, let me tell you another way. " You are so closely united to Jesus, so closely united to Jesus, that Jesus, your Savior and sanctifier, who is serving in His sufferings to gather you to glory, your sufferings are part of His sufferings and they are part of what God is doing to bring you to glory. And look how he emphasizes that. Look at verse 11. First he says, "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. " So he identifies you and Jesus and emphasizes that you come from one God whose purposes are to bring many sons to glory. Then he says, "That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. " He's talking about Jesus. Jesus is not ashamed to call you brothers. You know, one the last day when the accuser points his boney finger at you, you know one of the things that Jesus is going to say is, "That's My brother that you're pointing to. That's My sister that you're pointing to. I would you suggest you put your hand down!" He calls you brother! That's how united to you He is.

And not only that, notice he says, "I will tell of your name to My brothers!" He says to God, "I'm going to testify to You amongst My brothers and sisters! I'm going to tell them how faithful You are in suffering because You were faithful in My suffering!" And not only that, "In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise. " Do you ever walk away from worship service and you say, "You know I could have reached out and touched God today. He spoke so clearly and powerfully in the Word I could have reached out and touched Him. " One reason why, do you understand, that Jesus at the right hand is not only ever living to intercede but He's worshiping with you in this congregation? He's worshiping with you! He's worshiping God the Father with you, for you, helping you worship. That's how identified He is with you.

And then he says, "I will put my trust in Him. " In other words, Jesus is saying, "I had to put My trust in God. There came a day when I cried out, 'My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me?'" All Jesus had was the trust of God's Word! He says, "When you're at the end of your rope and all you can do is cry out and hang on and trust," Jesus says, "I've been there. " "And behold, I" — it's that little Hebrew word. You know it's the same thing that Abraham says. When God calls out to him in Genesis, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Behold, I! Here I am!" And here's Jesus saying, "Behold, I and the children God has given Me. " You see that ties into what we read in verse 10. What's God's purpose in all of this, even in our suffering? To bring many sons to glory. At the end of time Jesus is going to say, "Here they are, Your children, God. I brought every single one of them home. Not a one of them is missing. Here I am and Your children, the children You have given Me. " That's how closely identified to us Jesus is.

So what's the author of Hebrews saying? He's saying, "Do you realize that it was fitting that Jesus be the perfect Savior you need in your sufferings by enduring perfectly suffering for you? And that He is so identified with you that what is His is yours and what is yours is His?" And so when you're hit out of the blue by the pain and the loss and the suffering, the Father is saying to you, "I made His sufferings serve to bring you to glory and I will make your sufferings serve to bring you to glory too because by faith your sufferings are now His and I will not waste a drop of His sufferings. "

Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, help us to believe what You teach us in Your Word and help every brother and sister this morning in the throes of suffering to trust in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now let's sing about this. Paul Gerhardt was a Lutheran pastor who knew suffering. Turn with me to number 609, "Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me?"

Believer, receive God's benediction. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Like His Brethren in All Things - Hebrews 2:14-18

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 2. We're going to be looking at verses 14 to 18 together today. There is a haunting phrase in Andrew Peterson's wrenchingly beautiful song, "You'll Find Your Way. " Fathers, if you haven't heard that song, I'd commend you to listen to it and even pray through it thinking about your sons. It's a - the lyric is a father thinking about his son and even speaking to his son before his son knows what he's going to be facing in life. And he tells his son, "You're going to grow up, son, and you're going to get lost. And when you get lost, the only way that you'll ever find your way home is to follow the old path. " It's a wise and telling and deeply moving song. But the haunting phrase in that song that I've thought about over and over is when he says to his son, he's telling him some things that are going to be coming up in his life — your first kiss, your first crush, the first time you know you're not enough — and that's the phrase that gets me, "the first time you know you're not enough. " I don't know all that Andrew Peterson means by that but I know what that means myself. I have experienced the meaning of that phrase ubiquitously in my own life. There are many situations and circumstances where I am not enough.

And the author of Hebrews, for two chapters now, has been pressing home this truth to us, that there is never a time when Jesus is not enough. His great theme is that Jesus is better, Jesus is enough, He's more than enough. And he's emphasized this to us in various ways. We've pondered the great truths together a couple of weeks ago of Hebrews chapter 2 verse 8 when we said that God has put everything under Jesus' feet, even when it doesn't look like it. And then in verse 10 last week we thought about the fact that God is at work in Jesus' sufferings and ours and if He's at work in Jesus' suffering and ours, and He is, then there is no such thing as meaningless suffering in our experience. There's no such thing as wasted suffering; there's no such thing as purposeless suffering in our lives. God has a good purpose at work in Jesus' suffering and ours.

And today we come to a passage about temptation and it's very timely and it's very helpful. And so we're going to read it, but before we do let's look to God in prayer and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, we need Your help in temptation. Your Son taught us to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation,' and He taught us to pray that because He understood temptation Himself. We're sometimes too glib about our temptations, but other times, O Lord, we're so overwhelmed that we have no idea what to do. Teach us from Your Word what to do in temptation. Make us now to listen and believe as Your Word is read, in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it in Hebrews chapter 2 beginning in verse 14:

"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

I don't know what temptations you brought with you today when you came to this place but I do know that you brought them with you. They're all around us and inside us and they often vex us and sometimes we don't know what to do. And the one-point sermon that the author of Hebrews is preaching to us today is this — Jesus knows how to help you in temptation because He's been tempted Himself. Jesus knows how to help you in temptation and He knows how to deliver you in places where you have no idea how you're going to be delivered. And he walks you through five truths to get you to that one point and I'm going to walk with you through those truths in this passage today.

JESUS KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS

The first one you'll see in verse 14 where he says, "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. " It's another one of these sentences — and this is what, about the fourth time now, we've seen just in this chapter the author of Hebrews give us a sentence that we could read and close our Bibles and go home and think about for a week and we wouldn't come close to exhausting the glory of his meaning. But what's he mean when he says that? He means this. Because we live in flesh and blood, Jesus came and He took our flesh and blood forever upon Himself. Christians believe that we are beings that are made of flesh and blood. We're not simply spirits that are waiting to escape this chamber that we live in. We believe that in eternity we will be embodied. We are a body/soul composite reality and our spirit can't even express its full potential without our bodies and so Jesus, when He came to save us, took on our flesh. And He didn't just take it for a little while and He didn't just take it partially, He took on our humanity fully and permanently.

The church fathers boggled at this truth. They said, "He became what He was not without ceasing to be who He was so that He could make you to be what you are not and like Him. " And again, we could meditate on that forever. And in fact, the author of Hebrews here in 2:14 has juxtaposed something that we need to comprehend; at least we need to reflect on for a few moments. Think of what he has already said in Hebrews 1:4. He said that Jesus is superior to the angels and he's emphasized it by saying He's the radiance of God's glory. He's more excellent than the angels. He sits at the right hand of the Father. He's superior to the angels. But here in 2:14 he says He is like you. Now ponder that for a minute my friends. He's superior to angels but He is like you in every respect. That's emphasized not only in verse 14 but again in verse 17. Jesus is superior to the angels but He's made like us in every way.

What's the author of Hebrews wanting us to reflect on? It's simply this. He wants us to understand that God knows what it is like to live in your skin. God knows what it is like to live in your skin, not just because He made you, though He did, not just because He knit you together in your mother's womb, though He did, but because in His Son He has taken on our flesh and blood. You know how it is sometimes when you're young and you look at other people and you think, "I can't believe they're doing that. I can't believe they've gone that way. " You feel very imperious, very superior, very condescending. And then an older, wiser, kinder Christian says to you, "You know, you ought to walk a mile in her shoes before you make that judgment. " Do you understand that Jesus didn't just come and walk a mile in your shoes? When He took on your flesh and blood, He took on your flesh and blood forever. Do you realize that? That there is a human being sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty right now ruling this universe by the word of His power? There is flesh and blood at the right hand of the Father Almighty. And what does that mean for you and me? It means that our God understands from the inside the temptations and sufferings that we face as humans.

Now we've recently gathered a support group in our church. There's an announcement mentioned at the bottom of the Morning Worship Guide about it to help give support and fellowship for friends and family members of those who are struggling with various kinds of addictions. And a friend of mine was saying to me that in the course of that sharing and mutual support that it has struck him that the two most powerful words in our language are, "Me too. " You know, you get into a room and you think that you're the only one that is going through something and suddenly there are other brothers and sisters in Christ and they are in the exact same fight that you're in. And the power of them being able to say, "Me too," is incredibly heartening and encouraging.

Well you understand what the author of Hebrews is saying to you? He's saying, "Your Savior can look you in the eye because He's inside your skin and He can say, 'Me too. I know what that's like. I am fully human. I have experienced suffering and temptation and in fact I have experienced temptations that you cannot even begin to comprehend. '" The author of Hebrews is telling us this because he wants you to know that God is in your skin.

JESUS DIED TO DESTROY DEATH

There's a second thing that he says on the way to this point about Jesus being able to help us in temptation and you see it in verses 14 and 15. Look at the words. "That through death he might destroy the one that has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. " What's he mean by that? He means that because we were dead in sin and because we were enslaved to Satan, Jesus died to destroy death and set us free. Have you ever wondered how far Jesus had to go to set us free from enslavement to Satan and to the death which is the wages of sin? He had to go all the way through from temptation to suffering to death and back. That's how far He had to go. And the author of Hebrews is reminding you of that here. That's how far your Savior had to go.

JESUS RESCUES THE OFFSPRING OF ABRAHAM

And then third, if you look at verse 16, it's almost like an aside. After the author has said this he says, "Ponder this friends. " Verse 16 — "Surely it is not angels that he helps but he helps the offspring of Abraham. " Do you see what the author of Hebrews is saying? "Think about this, friends. God rides to our rescue in redemption, not to the rescue of angels. " You know there were angels who, along with Lucifer, rebelled against God. God did not rescue them. And the author of Hebrews is saying this. "Do you understand that God came to your rescue, not to the rescue of angels? Friends, angels in heaven will say to you, 'What's it like to be a child of Abraham? I'd really like to know. What's it like to be a being that God came to the rescue of in the life and death and resurrection of His Son because I don't know what that feels like?'" No wonder Peter says that angels look into what is happening in our redemption and they long to understand and they wonder at what is going on because God has done this for us and not for angels.

JESUS IS A MERCIFUL MEDIATOR AND PERFECT PROPITIATOR OF OUR SINS

And then he goes on. Here's the four thing. Look at verse 17. "Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. " In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying to us, "He became like us — why? That He might be a merciful mediator and the perfect propitiator of our sins. " The church fathers used to say, "The un-assumed is the unhealed. " In other words, if Jesus hadn't taken on our human nature He could not have dealt with the righteous wrath of God against our sin not aided us in the battle of godliness in these bodies of ours as we fight against temptation and we see to grow in the image of Christ. But He became like us so that He could deliver us, so that He could be our merciful, sympathetic, understanding mediator and so that He could offer a perfect propitiation for our sin, quitting the just wrath of God against our sin and covering our sin.

JESUS KNEW SUFFERING FROM THE INSIDE

AND THEREFORE IS ABLE TO HELP IN TEMPTATION

And then finally look at verse 18. The author of Hebrews says, "For because he himself has suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted. " And again it's one of those sentences that we could meditate on for the rest of our lives. The author of Hebrews is saying, "Because Jesus knows suffering and temptation from the inside, He knows how to help you in temptation. " It's a glorious thing, isn't it, that Jesus knows how to help you in temptation and suffering, not theoretically, not academically, but personally, because He's lived inside your skin. He knows what it is like to be fully human in a fallen world and He knows how to help you.

And have you ever thought about it? That's how much it took to deliver us from bondage to sin. To deliver us, Jesus had to share in our nature and to suffer temptation with us. That's how far He had to go to deliver us from temptation and sin. And you know what, part of us knows that. Part of us knows because there are especially those sins that we can't seem to be able to shake. We can't conquer them and they vex us and we know that it must have taken a mighty power to defeat sin because we feel so defeated sometimes. So part of us knows that Jesus had to go that far in order to give us victory over temptation and sin but part of us can't even conceive that. Honestly, we can't even conceive that. But every part of us ought to praise Him for it.

Some of you have read or followed the story of Professor Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. She wrote a book called, The Secret Thought of an Unlikely Convert, which a number of you have read and been helped by. This past week she wrote an article for Christianity Today; it is her testimony of conversion. She subtitles that testimony, "As A Leftist, Lesbian Professor, I Despised Christians — and Then Somehow I Became One. " I read this testimony to the ministers on Friday at our minister's meeting and we were left speechless for a few moments at the work of God's grace in this dear sister. And because it speaks very directly to the passage today I want to share with you Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's testimony in her own words:

"The word, Jesus, stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk. No matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed that name commanded by pity and wrath. As a university professor I tired of students who seemed to believe that knowing Jesus meant knowing little else. Christian in particular were bad readers, always ceasing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark, to end it rather than to deepen it. Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christian and their God, Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model. As a professor of English and Women's Studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality and I probably could have stomached Jesus and His band of warriors if it weren't for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian right. Pat Robertson's quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge. 'Feminism,' he sneered, 'encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians. '

Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma co-mingling with Republican politics demanded my attention. So after my tenure book was published I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist, lesbian professor. My life was happy, meaningful, and full. My partner and I shared many vital interests — AIDS activism, children's health and literacy, golden retriever rescue, and our Unitarian Universalist church — to name a few. Even if you believed the ghost stories promulgated by Robertson and his ilk it was hard to argue that my partner and I were anything but good citizens and caregivers. The GLBT community values hospitality and applies it with skill, sacrifice, and integrity.

I began researching the religious right and their politics of hatred against people like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off of the track — the Bible. While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy Trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy in the form of an article in a local newspaper about Promise Keepers — it was 1997. The article generated many rejoinders so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk — one for hate mail, one for fan mail. But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kinds of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know that you're right? Do you believe in God? Ken didn't argue with my article, rather he asked me to defend the presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn't know how to respond so I threw his letter away.

Later that night I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with a worldview divide that demanded a response. As a post-modern intellectual, I operated from a historical, materialist worldview. But Christianity is a supernatural worldview. Ken's letter punctured the integrity of my research project without him even knowing it. With the letter, Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at gay pride marches. The Christians who mocked me on gay pride day were happy that I and everyone who I loved were going to hell. That's not what Ken did. He did not mock; he engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner I accepted. My motives at that time were straight forward — 'Surely this will be good for my research. ' But something else happened. Ken and his wife, Flo, and I became friends. They entered my world. They met my friends. We did book exchanges. We talked openly about sexuality and politics and they did not act as if such conversations were polluting them. They did not treat me like a blank slate and when we ate together Ken prayed in a way that I had never heard before. His prayers were intimate, vulnerable. Ken repented of his sin in front of me! He thanked God for all things. Ken's God was holy and firm and yet full of mercy. And because Ken and Flo didn't at first invite me to church I knew it was safe to be their friend.

I started reading the Bible. I read in a way that a glutton devours. I read it many times that first year in multiple translations, and at a dinner gathering my partner and I were hosting, my transgendered friend Jay cornered me in the kitchen. She put her large hand over mine. 'This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria,' she warned. With tremors I whispered, 'Jay, what if it's true? What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord? What if we're all in trouble?' Jay exhaled deeply, 'Rosaria, I was a Presbyterian minister for fifteen years. I pray that God would heal me but He didn't. If you want, I'll pray for you. ' But I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside of me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might and then one Sunday morning I rose from the bed of my lover and an hour later sat in the pew at the Syracuse Presbyterian Church.

Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded myself that I came to meet God, not to fit in. I fought with everything I had. I did not want this. I did not ask for this. I counted the cost and I did not like the math on the other side of the equals sign. And then one ordinary day I came to Jesus, orphaned, open-handed, and naked. In this war of worldviews Ken was there, Flo was there, the church that had been praying for me for years was there; Jesus triumphed and I was a broken mess. My conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved but the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death He could make right my world. I drank tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family where one calls me, 'wife,' and many call me, 'mother. '"

And then I love this line. She says, "I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life. " You see what she's saying? It took the temptation and suffering and blood of Jesus to give her this life and she's not about to forget it. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying to you this morning. I don't know what temptation you brought here with you today, but there is no temptation that is more than a match for Him. He is more than a match for any and every temptation. Jesus is enough; He's more than enough. And He has gone all the way to His shed blood to deliver His people from bondage and slavery to sin. There's nothing He can't handle.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we need to believe that but it's hard to believe that, so this is our prayer — Lord, we believe. Help thou our unbelief, in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's conclude our worship by singing of the sovereign Savior who can help us in any and every temptation using number 243, "Praise the Savior, Now and Ever. "

Receive God's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

More Glory Than Moses - Hebrews 3:1-6

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 3. We're going to be looking at verses 1 to 6 as we continue in a new chapter in our study of the book of Hebrews together. We've said all along that Hebrews is a book that is focused on Jesus. The theme for our series is "Better" and that's drawn from the book of Hebrews which constantly compares Jesus to all sorts of other significant people in the providential rule of God and then proclaims Jesus to be superior to them. Today, Moses will be affirmed as a faithful servant of the Lord but Jesus will be proclaimed to have more glory. And so the reason we've chosen the theme, "Better" is because it adequately emphasizes that this book is about Jesus and it is about His supremacy, His sufficiency, His superiority.

But we've also said that the book of Hebrews is about the Christian life, and it is. In fact, one of the things that I love about the book of Hebrews is how it emphasizes that the way we live the Christian life is by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. We'll come to almost those exact words before this book is done, but that message, that theme, is found long before the author of Hebrews ever utters those words. How do you live the Christian life? You keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. And the passage that we're going to study today is one of those passages that tells us how to do that. Another thing we love about the book of Hebrews is how realistic the author of Hebrews is about the Christian life. He understands that the Christian life is fight. It requires endurance. It' a long race and sometimes you want to give up. And he comes to help you in knowing how to respond when you're in those circumstances.

As we read the passage today, I'd like you to be on the lookout for four things before we read. First of all, if you look at the very first verse, I want you to notice what the author of Hebrews wants us to realize about ourselves. If you're a Christian today, if you're trusting in Christ for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel, the very first words of Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1 says something about you. Do you realize those things about yourself? I want you to be on the lookout for that. Secondly, if you look at the second half of that verse, immediately the author of Hebrews turns our attention to Jesus and he wants you to realize something about Jesus. So I want you to see what he asks you to realize about yourself and then second I want you to see what he says that he wants you to realize about Jesus. Then, if you look at verses 2 all the way down to verse 6, he's going to tell you something about what Jesus has done and what Jesus has done for you and he wants you to realize that. He wants you to take it in. And then finally in the very last phrase of verse 6 he wants to tell you something about your perseverance. He wants you to realize something about your perseverance. Those are the things that I want you to be on the lookout for as we read. Before we do, let's pray and ask for God's help and blessing.

Our heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We need it. Speak Your Word deep into our own hearts. Whatever troubles we are wrestling with this morning, whatever cares and concerns and disappointments overshadow us as we come into this place to meet with You today, and make Your Word, by Your Spirit, to be powerful and effective and profitable for reproof, correction, and training in righteousness because we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1. Let's hear it:

"Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses — as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. ) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

One of my favorite book is by a man named Thomas Brooks, and it's a little book called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. I talked about it in Sunday School class today. I've read that book so often that it has fallen apart twice. The first time it fell apart I sent it to my father, the printer, and got him to put it back together again. And so he re-glued the book back together again and it fell apart again. I've used it in small groups, I've used it in private devotion, I've used it for Sunday School classes; it's one of my favorite books. One of the things Thomas Brooks says, this famous Puritan author, in the introduction to that little book, is that there are four things that every Christian must know in order to live the Christian life. Now when a great and faithful pastor says that there are four things that every Christian must know to live the Christian life, I don't know how you are but my ears perk up! I want to know what they are. And he says in that introduction that every Christian, in order to live the Christian life, must know four things: Christ, the Scriptures, ourselves, and Satan's devices. And really that whole book is built around the theme of knowing Christ, knowing ourselves, and knowing Satan's devices from Scripture. He plows through Scripture pulling together what it teaches about those three things so that we can live the Christian life.

Well the passage that we're looking at this morning speaks of two of those things in particular — Christ and ourselves. Now very often in the Bible, when the Bible tells us something about itself, it's doing what we found Jeremiah doing in Jeremiah 19 and reminding us that we are sinners and that we need to be forgiven and that we need to repent. But isn't it interesting that that's not where the author of Hebrews begins in this passage today. Look at where he begins.

A HEAVENLY CALLING

In verse 1, the author of Hebrews says, "Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling. " Notice what he does to begin with. He asks you to realize and remember who you are in Jesus Christ. If you are a believer, if you have trusted in Christ for salvation, then he wants to realize what God has made you; who you are in Christ. And he says three things in particular. First of all, he calls you "holy. " I don't know how you react, but when I read that passage said about me I'm very tempted to say, "Who? Me? Are you talking to me? A holy brother who is a partaker of a heavenly calling? You must be talking about somebody else in the room, not me!" But he says three things about you. First of all that you're holy, secondly that you are a brother and that means not simply that you are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ but that you are brother and sister to Jesus Christ. He is your elder brother. You are related to Him. You've been, by grace, been brought into His family and He is your older brother. Third, he says that you are a partaker, a sharer in a heavenly calling.

Isn't that incredibly encouraging? He begins this passage on the Christian life by saying, "Believer, you need to stop and realize who you are in Jesus Christ. " The New Testament describes us as believers in various ways. Sometimes it reminds us that we are sinners; other times it reminds us that we are saints. And we need to understand all of the things about us that the Bible teaches us or we will live a Christian life that lacks the boldness and confidence that God intends us to have. And isn't this a wonderful encouraging way of starting a passage about the Christian life? I was talking to a dear friend about this book a couple of weeks ago and he said, "You know what? The book of Hebrews and I have not always been friends. " He said, "I often get hung up by the warning passages in the book of Hebrews and the conditional passages in the book of Hebrews and spend all of my time thinking about the fact that I have not done things that I was supposed to do and I have done things that I wasn't supposed to do and I've felt discouraged by the book of Hebrews. " But understand, my friends, this book is a book filled with encouragement, even when it's warning. We've going to see that in the sixth verse in just a few minutes. And isn't this an encouraging way to start a passage? Brothers, sisters, realize who you are! You have been made holy in Christ. You have been made brothers. You are fellow heirs. You are related to the inheritor, Jesus Christ, and you have been given a heavenly calling.

You know one thing that parents of teenagers, whether they're in high school or college and sometimes even a little bit after college, wrestle with is their teenagers or their young people trying to figure out what they're vocation is going to be in life. "What is it that I'm called to do? What is it that I'm suited to do? What is it that I'm gifted to do, that I'm inclined to do, that I would be happy and effective and useful doing for the rest of my life?" That's a good question and sometimes it takes a long time for a young person to find out that answer. But here, the author of Hebrews says, "Let me tell you what the vocation of every Christian is. your vocation is a heavenly vocation. You are called to be a sharer, a partaker, in heavenly glory. God's made you for that! You are a pilgrim on the way to a city which has foundations. Whatever else you are in this life, whether you're called to be a nurse, or a teacher, or an attorney, or a doctor, or whatever you're called to do, as a Christian, you are called, you are destined, you are a partaker, you are a sharer in a heavenly calling that's going to take you all the way to glory. And that defines you. " And so the author of Hebrews just asks you to pause for a minute and realize who you are.

I can remember as a boy, when I had done something that was inconsistent with the family code that my father had pronounced and I pulled out the ever trusty, "But dad, all the other kids are doing it!" I would be met with the word, "Son, you're a Duncan and Duncans don't do that. " And that trumped whatever I had said that all the other kids were doing. Well the author of Hebrews is pulling a family identity motivation on you right now. He's saying, "I want you to pause, Christian, and realize who you are. " Now if you're a Christian here today you may be saying to me, "But Ligon, I don't feel very holy and I surely don't feel like a brother of Jesus. In fact, I don't feel sometimes like a distant relative! And I don't feel like I have a vocation of a heavenly calling. " And I want to say to you I understand that. I feel like that too sometimes. And so when the author of Hebrews says this to us, one thing that he's telling us is that the Christian life must be lived by faith. You must live by faith. Sometimes you do not feel like any of those three things are true about you but if you are a believer, if you are trusting in Christ, all three of those things are true of you and even when you don't feel it, you must walk by faith. The Christian life begins by faith and it continues by faith. And the author of Hebrews is asking you, by faith, to believe those things.

Now if you're not a believer here this morning, let me just say that you cannot live the Christian life unless you're a Christian. You can't live the Christian life by faith unless you've come to faith in Christ. You must trust in Christ in order to live the Christian life. One of the problems that attends people that come to church but who are not trusting in Jesus Christ is that they try to live the Christian life without ever having trusted in Christ in the first place. But you can't live the Christian life that way because the whole of the Christian life not only begins but continues and is brought to an ultimate conclusion by faith. It's the only way you can live. And the Bible asks you to believe things that sometimes you just don't feel. And the author of Hebrews begins saying to us today, "If you want to live the Christian life you need to realize who you are, who God has made you in Jesus Christ. "

FOCUS ON JESUS CHRIST

But then immediately he turns our attention to Jesus. Even after saying encouraging things to us about ourselves, he says, "I not only want you to realize and remember something about who you are, I want you especially to recognize and focus on Jesus Christ. I want you to consider and focus on Jesus. " Look at what he says in verse 1. "Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. " The author of Hebrews is telling you, "Fix your thoughts on Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Consider Him. Dwell on Him. Meditate on Him. Reflect on Him. Focus on Him. Ponder your Mediator. " And notice he brings two things particularly to your attention. He says the Jesus, who is the object of your faith - because Christians don't just believe in believing, we've not taking a leap of faith, our faith is in a person and in God's promises — and so he says, "Here's the object of your faith , Jesus, now consider Him. He is an apostle and high priest of your confession. "

Now what does that mean? An apostle is someone who is sent from someone to someone else in order to be the representative of that person to someone else. And in John 17, Jesus says, "God has sent Jesus to us. " He is God's apostle to us. He is God's representative to us. And a high priest represents, by God's appointment, his people to Him. And the author of Hebrews says Jesus is both the apostle sent from God to you and He is your representative from you to me. In other words, He is the Mediator that you need. He is the go-between that you need in order to have communion with God. He is the one who represents God to you and you to God. And how does Jesus do that? He does that not by sending a video to us from heaven. He doesn't text us from the halls of glory. You know, "Seven Tips on How to Live Life. " What He does, as we saw last week, is He gets in our skin, He takes on our flesh, our human nature, our life, and He lives among us, fully human, fully divine to be sure, but fully human. And as our apostle and mediator and high priest, Jesus, in our flesh and blood, is the object of our faith.

Now what does that mean? It means that the Savior that we trust in is the Savior who was humbled in our flesh. Charles Simeon, a century ago, said this, "It is by the knowledge of Christ as humbled that we attain salvation. " At First Presbyterian Church, I have no doubt that the members of this congregation are completely and fully committed to and believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. And that's good because the Bible teaches it and Jesus Himself teaches it. But that fully divine Jesus Christ was fully human, and not only fully human, but humiliated on our behalf. And it is the fully divine Jesus, who was fully human and humiliated, who is the object of our faith and the hope of our salvation.

A friend of mine was recently reflecting on the fact that so many of the psalms are interrogative. "Why God? What God? How God?" From the midst of our troubles we cry out, "God, what are You doing?" We ask Him questions; they're interrogative. And when we pray to God, the one who is at the right hand of God knows and understands those questions from the inside because He cried them out Himself. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed, "If possible, could You take this away from Me?" On the cross He prays, "My God, My God! Why are You forsaking Me?" All those interrogatives you cry out He doesn't just understand because He knew that you did them once, He's cried them out too. And that embodied, that fully human, that humiliated Savior is the Savior by which you attain salvation. And so the author of Hebrews not only wants you to reflect on what God has made you, who you are, he wants you to reflect on who Jesus is.

REFLECT ON WHAT JESUS HAS DONE

And third, he wants you to reflect on what Jesus has done. Look at verses 2 to 6. The especial thing that Jesus has done here, of course, you'll see in verse 3. He is the builder of the house. He is the builder of the house. Jesus is the builder of the household of God. And don't just think of the structure; think of the people. This is telling us that Jesus is the builder of the family of God. Moses was faithful to minister in the household of God, Moses was faithful to minister to the family of God, but Jesus created the family of God! Jesus built the household of God. In His life and death and resurrection, He created a people for Himself. Do you remember what He said to the disciples on the night that He was betrayed in the Upper Room? "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may be also. " He's speaking of building the household of God, building a people for God, building the family of God. Jesus did that, and the author of Hebrews wants us to reckon with that.

Do you realize what Jesus is doing? He's making you to be part of the family of God forever. You can see some beautiful homes in our area and inside those homes, beautiful houses, are broken families. You can put a beautiful façade on a building and it can house something that's not a home, but Jesus is building a home. That's what He's doing. And the author of Hebrews just holds that up before your eyes and says, "I want you to think about that. You're living the Christian life and it looks hard. I want you to think about what Jesus is doing. "

DON'T GIVE UP YOUR CONFIDENCE

DON'T GIVE UP YOUR HOPE

Fourth and finally, notice what he says in verse 6. Again, whose house we are, "if we hold fast our confidence and boast of our hope firm to the end. " Here's one of those conditional passages. We are His house if we do this and you may be that person who feels like, "Oh no, maybe I haven't done that!" and it discourages you. But you understand, these words are here for an encouragement not a discouragement. These words are designed to motivate you not de-motivate you. These words are designed to encourage you not discourage you. The author of Hebrews is saying, "Don't give up. Don't quit. Don't stop. Keep on going in the Christian life. " He's urging you to pursue perseverance to the very end because he's so realistic about the Christian life. He's not Pollyannaish. He's not like Scarlett O'Hara thinking about tomorrow. He's not encouraging you to put all the hard things out of your mind, but he is saying this. "Don't give up. Don't quit. Don't stop. As hard as it is, as hard as it seems, set your eyes on" — what? "Your confidence and your hope. "

Do you do that often? In the midst of troubles that overwhelm you, do you deliberately set your eyes on your confidence and your hope? C. S. Lewis once said, "Reality, looked at long enough, is unbearable. " Reality, looked at long enough, is unbearable. You stare at the way things are for long enough and it will depress the most sanguine of us. The most cheerful and buoyant of us will be depressed if we look at the way things are long enough. Well I don't deny that the Lord's mercy and grace have followed me all the days of my life and yet I don't want to live forever. There are troubles here that could break the heart of the strongest person, and if you look at those things long enough you'll give up. The author of Hebrews says, "Look at where your confidence is; look at where your hope is. " He's asking you in the midst of those troubles to lift your eyes up and look at the hope that is set before you.

You know, Jonathan Edwards made it a habit of meditating on heaven twenty minutes every morning. Why? So that he could check out from reality? No, so that he could face reality remembering where his hope was. Maybe some of you need to do that today; you need to be reminded of your hope so that you have energy to persevere because there are sometimes where you can't find the strength to pick up one foot and put it down again. The author of Hebrews is saying, "Do you want to live the Christian life? Realize who you are, focus on Jesus, recognize what He's done and what He's doing — He's building you a home, and then don't forget your hope. " And he's so encouraging and so practical. May God grant that we would heed his words to us today. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Jesus and for the hope that He gives us and we pray that You would, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, work that hope in us, in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's sing of the love of Jesus for us in number 708, "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. "

Receive God's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Don't Stop Believing - Hebrews 3:7-19

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 3. It's been three weeks since we've been in Hebrews together, so allow your eyes to look back to Hebrews 3:1-6. We're going to be concentrating on verses 7 to 19 this morning, and refresh your mind as to the content of that passage because it will help you understand why the author of Hebrews is addressing us about this particular topic this morning.

If you look at Hebrews 3 verses 1 to 6 you will notice that the author of Hebrews is comparing Moses and Jesus and he compliments Moses' faithfulness to the Lord in his service of the Lord to the children of Israel in the Old Testament, but he comments as well that Jesus is faithful over God's house as His Son. Moses was faithful in God's house as God's servant; Jesus is over God's house as God's Son. So it's a passage that speaks of the superiority of Jesus even over Moses. Now this is very significant because one of the temptations that this congregation is facing is that many of them, having come out of Judaism into Christianity, are now being tempted to leave Christianity and go back into Judaism. And so showing the superiority of Jesus over Moses is a very important part of the author of Hebrews' pastoral counsel to them. And of course it also spawns what he's going to do in verses 7 to 19.

You will notice in verses 7 to 19 he takes you to Israel in the wilderness. And it's as if thinking about Moses' faithfulness in leading Israel in the wilderness gets him thinking about Israel's unfaithfulness while they are in the wilderness. And that is the topic of the passage that we're going to be studying today. If you notice - now some of your Bibles will have it in all capital letters and some of your Bibles will have it set apart as a quotation and some of your Bibles will simply have it in quotation marks - there is a large chunk of Psalm 95 that is quoted in the passage this morning, from the very last sentence of Psalm 95 verse 7 all the way down to verse 11, that whole chunk of Psalm 95 is quoted in Hebrews 3. By the way, I opened up with a quotation from Psalm 95 in the Call to Worship that are the words that immediately precede this section that is quoted in Hebrews 3. Now from Hebrews 3:7 all the way to Hebrews 4:14, the author of Hebrews is essentially giving you a commentary on, a sermon about, an application of Psalm 95 verses 7 to 11. So this is an extended sermon based on Psalm 95 preached to Christians designed to warn them not to turn their back on Jesus and go back into the Judaism from whence they had come. Don't turn your back on Jesus the Savior; He's superior to Moses and then in this passage it will be shown that Israel was unfaithful in the wilderness. So going back to where you've come from is not going to be the answer because Israel herself was unfaithful in the wilderness. That's the context for the passage that we're going to be studying together today.

Let's look to God in prayer and ask for His help and blessing as we read His Word.

Heavenly Father, this Word is for us. It's not just for Christians who lived two thousand years ago or for Jewish people who lived twenty-five hundred or three thousand years ago; it's for us. And so we ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things in Your Word and that by Your Holy Spirit You would apply this truth to our hearts right where we are today. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews 3 verse 7:

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways. ' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest. ''

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said,

'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. '

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

There is something important for us to learn about the living of this life. There's something important for us to learn about the living of the Christian life from the story of Israel's journey in the wilderness. Have you noticed that, on more than one occasion, New Testament writers take Christians to the story of Israel in the wilderness and they treat the Christian life as if it were a new exodus and that we are to learn from both the mistakes and the triumphs of the children of Israel in the wilderness how we are to live this Christian life? Well this passage does that. In fact, as I was reading Hebrews 3 verses 7 to 19 I immediately thought of 1 Corinthians chapter 10 where the apostle Paul does the same thing. He takes us back to the rebellion in the wilderness and he warns us not to make the mistakes that the children of Israel made. But in this passage, the point of the author of Hebrews is not to criticize the Jewish people of old, but to warn Christians now about the dangers of unbelief. In fact, in this passage, I want you to see at least four things that he teaches us about the living of the Christian life. We've said all along that the book of Hebrews is about Christ and the book of Hebrews is about the Christian life. And to live the Christian life you have to fix your eyes on Jesus. Well once again, the author of the Hebrews has four words to us about the living of the Christian life.

HEED THE BIBLE

And the first one you will see in the very first words of verse 7. Look at that verse with me. "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear his voice" — now let me just cut off in the middle of the sentence because already, in just those words out of the partial sentence, we see the first words that the author of Hebrews has for us in the living of the Christian life. And it's this — Heed the Bible, and even the Old Testament, if you want to live the Christian life. Heed the Bible, and the Old Testament, if you want to live the Christian life. Now you say, "Well Ligon, I'm not sure exactly how I see that there in verse 7. " Let me explain. Notice that he is about to quote Psalm 95 verses 7 to 11. That's what's going to come beginning in verse 7 of Hebrews chapter 3 running all the way down to verse 11. And he introduces that quotation from the Psalm, from the Old Testament, with these words, "As the Holy Spirit says. " So this is not just the psalmist writing something about the history of Israel that has nothing to do with Christians; it's the Holy Spirit speaking to Christians in the Psalm.

Furthermore, notice what the next word is. "As the Holy Spirit says, 'Today -'" Now he'll repeat that if you look down in verse 15 of Hebrews chapter 3, he'll repeat that phrase again. "Today, if you hear his voice. " He's emphasizing that when the Holy Spirit says what He says in Psalm 95 verses 7 to 11 He's not speaking a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, He's speaking to you today. These words are for you. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they are for you so that you can know how to live the Christian life. Now Paul says that, doesn't he, in 2 Timothy chapter 3. "All Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for reproof, correction, and training in righteousness that the man of God may be equipped for every good work. " And the "all Scripture" that he's talking about there in 2 Timothy 3 is especially the Old Testament Scriptures. It applies to the whole Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, but what has he just said to Timothy? "Timothy, your grandmother and mother taught you the Scriptures when you were on their knee. " Now Jesus was not alive when Timothy's grandmother was alive. She was alive before Jesus. Timothy's mother would have probably been a contemporary of Jesus. So the Scriptures that Paul is speaking about being profitable there are the Scriptures that the church possessed before the New Testament was written — the Old Testament! And Paul is emphasizing that those Scriptures are not dusty, musty history texts that are boring and irrelevant for believers; those Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit so that we would know how to live the Christian life. And so the first thing that I want us to see is that the author of Hebrews wants us to heed the Bible, and even and especially the Old Testament, if we want to live the Christian life right.

HEED THE WARNINGS OF THE BIBLE

The second thing is this. Look with me at verses 7 to 9. "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. " Here, the author of Hebrews says, "There is a warning for you, Christian, in the unbelief and the rebellion of Israel in the wilderness. And so, if you're going to live the Christian life, you need to heed the warning of the Bible, not as a discouragement to you but as an encouragement to you to live the Christian life. " That's the second thing we learn. Heed the warnings of the Bible. They're not meant to be a discouragement to you, Christian. They're meant to be an encouragement to you to live the Christian life.

Let me explain. The children of Israel, as you know, get out in the wilderness, they have been miraculously delivered from the bondage and slavery of Egypt into the freedom of God's promise, on the way to the Promised Land, and they get out into the wilderness and it's hot and it's hard and they're scared. And what do they start to do? They grumble; they grumble against God and they grumble against Moses. And they say, "We had it so good in Egypt! It was great being a slave. It was great being beat up by somebody and not paid and mistreated and it was just wonderful. I just wish we could go back to Egypt!" And they grumble against God and they rebel against Him. And what does God say? "Not one of this generation, not one of this generation is going to enter into My land. Only Joshua and Caleb out of this generation will enter into My land because you didn't believe Me. You didn't trust Me. You didn't believe My promises. You didn't believe My providences. You didn't believe the good news of My bringing you out of Egypt that I was going to bring you into the Promised Land. It's because of your unbelief that you're not entering in. " And the author of Hebrews shows you that story in order to warn us against unbelief because unbelief if the great enemy.

And so I want you to understand how these warnings function. You know I've talked with a number of you since we started this series on the book of Hebrews and it's quite interesting. I've heard two repeated themes. Several of you have said to me, "I'm enjoying studying through the book of Hebrews because that book has always been hard to me. It's been hard to understand and I feel like I'm understanding it better as we work through it. " And it's true; it is a hard book. All of the commentators in this section, all of them, talk about how hard to understand this section can be. There's some very challenging things in this section of the book of Hebrews. And so some of you have been saying to me, "You know, I feel like I'm understanding Hebrews a little bit better because it's a hard book. " The other thing you've been saying to me is, "You know, I've always been a little scared of the book of Hebrews because there are some hard warnings in the book of Hebrews and sometimes those warnings have really disturbed me. " And this is the second warning. And Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 are looming. There are more warnings to come.

So it's very important for you to understand how these warnings work. The author of Hebrews is not trying to unsettle sensitive and sincere Christians who are engaged in the normal fight with sin in the Christian life. And it happens all the time. I talk with sincere, sensitive Christians who are struggling with the fight of sin in the Christian life and they come to the warnings of Hebrews and they end up in my office saying, "Am I a Christian? Have I fallen away from the faith?" And they're deeply disturbed by the warnings that they encounter in the book of Hebrews. The author of Hebrews is not trying to discourage sensitive and sincere Christians who are struggling with sin. Let me tell you something, when you begin the Christian life you are going to be in a fight against sin in your life until the day you die. And the fact that you are in a fight against sin is not a sign that you are not a Christian, it is a sign that you are a Christian. People who are not Christians are not worried about the fight against sin. They're worried about where they can get more of it. It's people who are fighting against sin that have been changed by the Holy Spirit. There would be no fight in you against sin had the Holy Spirit not changed your heart. So the author of Hebrews is not trying to discourage sensitive, sincere Christians who are struggling with sin. That is the normal state of the Christian life. That's not the exception to the rule; that's the rule in the Christian life. It's because we're alive that we're fighting against sin. If we were dead in sin we would not be fighting against sin. It's because we're alive by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that we're fighting against sin.

So what is the author of Hebrews trying to do in these warnings? Well, his purpose is to warn those who are considering turning their backs on Jesus and trying to find their hope somewhere else. This congregation has some people in it who have come out of Judaism and their Jewish contemporaries and friends, maybe even some Essenes from the Qumran area, because we know now what they taught, they may have come into contact with some of these folks and said, "Look, you can have everything you're looking for in Judaism as long as you will turn your back on Jesus and come back to Judaism. " And the preacher here in Hebrews is preaching a message and here's the message. "Do not turn your back on Jesus!" He's warning them with all he's got. Don't turn your back on Jesus! And what is he saying in this passage out of Psalm 95? He's saying, "If you turn your back on Jesus, you will be just like the children of Israel in the wilderness who turned their backs on God. They got out in the wilderness and it got hard and they turned their backs on God and they looked back where? To Egypt, to their bondage, to their slavery, to their sin. " And he said, "If you turn your back on Jesus, you're turning your back on the one person who can help you. If you turn your back on him there's no hope anywhere else. "

And my friends, that's a contemporary problem. You show me a Christian who is struggling with an incredibly difficult burden in their life and I'll show you a person who's tempted to not believe that Jesus can really help you. You know, you run into Christians who have been deeply hurt and wounded in the context of the church and sometimes you see Christians do what? You see Christians wounded in the church and they bail on Christianity. You know, "I got hurt in the church. I'm done with Christianity. " You know it's interesting. I was listening to a sermon by John Piper that he preached at Southern Baptist Seminary a few weeks ago and he's preaching on 2 Timothy chapter 4, the second half of the last chapter that Paul ever wrote in a book. And he's commenting on the fact, and you'll see it in 2 Timothy 4:16, which I think is one of the saddest verses in all of the Bible, that Paul was largely abandoned at the end of his life and ministry. Do you remember what he said? When he got up to give his testimony, his defense, before the Roman court in Rome, he said, "None stood by me, but all deserted me. "

And there are Christians that have those kinds of experiences in life. They feel deserted, abandoned, betrayed by other Christians, and then they make this deduction — "I've been let down by the church; I've been let down by Christians. I'm leaving Jesus. " And as Piper preaches that sermon he says, he just blurts out, "I hate the devil! Because here's what Satan tempts you to do. You've been let down by Christians so you decide since you've been left by Christians you're going to leave the one person, the one being in this universe who will never leave you or forsake you. That's what Satan tempts you to do! You've been let down by Christians so you're going to leave the one being in this universe who will never leave you or forsake you!" And you see, the author of Hebrews is saying something like that. He's saying, "Don't turn your back on Jesus. He is the one being who will never let you down and you will not find hope outside of Him or apart from Him. " That's what he's saying in this passage.

HEED THE DANGER OF UNBELIEF

And that leads us to a third thing. I'd like you to look with me again now, starting in verse 12, but you can glance down at verses 15 to 19 as well. Here, the author of Hebrews says this — Heed the danger of unbelief. Heed the Bible, heed the warnings of the Bible, heed the danger of unbelief. Look at verse 12. "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart. " Look down at verse 19. "So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. " The author of Hebrews is saying the root sin, the master sin, that led the children of Israel into disobedience and rebellion and ultimately destruction in the wilderness was? Unbelieving. They stopped believing God. They stopped believing His promises. They stopped believing His providence. They stopped believing His good news. They lost faith. And he's saying, "Christian, don't do that. Don't stop believing. " We live the Christian life, how? He will make this case in Hebrews chapter 11 — "we walk by faith and not by sight. " And so my friends, the battle to believe is very much at the heart of the Christian life because unbelief is a root sin, it's a master sin, it leads to all kinds of other sin, and ultimately to death.

Look at what he says again in verse 12. "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart" — what? "Leading you to fall away from the living God. " Do you believe, Christians? You know, you don't start the Christian life with faith to leave that behind. You live the Christian life by faith. And let me say, as glorious and dramatic as some of our conversions are, when we just come completely out of darkness and into His marvelous light, there are trials in the Christian life that can be just as dramatic, where you're forced to ask yourself the question, "What do I really believe? Who do I really trust? What really matters to me? Where is my faith? Where is my hope? Where is my trust? Where is my treasure?" And the author of Hebrews is saying, "When you get to those points in the Christian life, do not stop believing. Continue to believe God's promises. Believe His power. Believe His providence. Believe His Gospel, because we walk by faith and not by sight.

ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER TO BELIEVE

And that leads me to the fourth thing that I want you to see. Look again at verse 13. "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. " Do you see what he's saying? Not only heed the Bible, not only heed the warnings of the Bible, not only heed the danger of unbelief, but heed the call to encourage one another. Don't stop believing, keep on believing, but encourage one another to believe. You know, Nate Shurden mentioned some of our runners in the congregation and he called into question your integrity when you say that you like to run. Well I observe our runners too. You know, we have some ultra-marathoners in this congregation. They will run a hundred miles. And very often they will take along with them a friend who will run part of the way with them just to encourage them because it's just such an exorbitant amount of mileage to travel while you're running. And I'm sure there's a term of art for that person who runs along and encourages you, but that's what they're supposed to do. When you're running a hundred miles, maybe they run forty of it with you. They couldn't run a hundred miles themselves, but they can run far enough to just encourage you to just keep going, keep running, don't give up, keep on.

And the author of Hebrews is saying we need to do that with one another in the Christian life. We need to say to one another, "Keep running! Don't stop! Don't stop believing! Keep on going! Don't fall away! Don't turn your back on Christ!" We need one another. And we need to be exhorting one another. Recently, two of your elders and I had to sit down with a pastor from another church, not one of our ministers but a pastor from another church in our capacity as we serve in this presbytery. And it's one of those conversations you never want to have. It was about a moral failure and it was a poignant time. And after we met with that dear brother, one of the elders who's been a friend of mine for a long, long time, looked me in the eye and he said, "Ligon, don't fall. Don't stumble like that. Don't make the mistake that he did. " And those words pierced my heart because don't think that I hadn't been thinking that the whole time that we were meeting with that brother. I thought, you know, the chairs could be reversed here. You see, that wasn't a discouragement to hear; that was an encouragement. That was a brother who is with me in the fight and he's not just going to let me fall without encouraging me, "Brother, keep running. Don't stop believing. Don't stumble and fall. Keep on going. " That's what the author of Hebrews is saying we need to do with one another because the Christian life sometimes is a wilderness.

I'm so thankful when you find yourselves in those oases that come in life where you just feel like, "I just want to stay right here, Lord. " I love it when you give me the testimony that the lines have fallen for you in pleasant places. But I also know that even when those lines have fallen for you in pleasant places there are hard places in your life that you have to deal with, and when you're there, there is a temptation to stop believing and to fall. And that's why we always need to be exhorting one another, "Don't stop believing. Don't stop running. Keep believing on Jesus. Don't fall away. " We need one another, brothers and sisters. You see, that's the encouraging message of the author of Hebrews. He's not trying to discourage you with this warning; it's quite the opposite. His point is to encourage. Keep on. He knows it's hard. It's a jungle out there, a wilderness out there, but keep believing. Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank You for this word. We know that we need it, so help us sing with faith as we sing about faith in this next song and keep us from falling. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you take your hymnals and turn with me to number 499 and we'll sing, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me. "

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Rest That Remains - Hebrews 4:1-13

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4 as we continue our way through this great book. You may remember the last time as we looked at Hebrews chapter 3 verses 7 to 19 we said that that section of Hebrews, running all the way through the passage that we're going to be studying today, is in, one sense, a sermon on Psalm 95 verses 7 to 11. He quotes Psalm 95 verses 7 to 11 in Hebrews chapter 3 and then he begins to expound on it. He preaches us a message from Psalm 95 and that message continues today. In fact, it's something that occurs in the last verse of Psalm 95 that gets him going on the theme of "rest. " You will notice the word, rest, appearing repeatedly in Hebrews chapter 4 and he's gotten that word from Psalm 95 verse 11. And he meditates on what that means. There's a sense in which the message you're going to hear today is going to be a one-point message: "Enter the rest. "

But you have to understand three things in order to pay heed to that message. You have to understand what the rest is, and he spends much of these verses, from Hebrews 4:1-13 explaining what he means by the rest. He's not asking you to do something that you can't understand. He's wanting to explain to you the charge that he's brining to you. He also wants to make sure that you understand why you need to enter the rest. You need to understand your own heart, your own need, whether you are in fact desiring or hoping for this rest that he's going to explain. And he wants you to understand how you enter the rest. All three of those things he's going to explain in this passage. Now as we work through it together, I'm actually going to show you six parts of his argument, just to show the flow of his argument. But bear in mind, it's a one-point sermon; there are just six parts to his argument.

Look at this part. Before we even read, I want you to be able to follow along. Look at verse 1. There's the first thing that he says. He wants to make sure that you do not fail to enter into the rest, which immediately raises in your mind the question, "Okay, what rest? What rest are you talking about?" He then says in verse 2 that there were some that had the Gospel preached to them that didn't enter into this rest. So he still hasn't told you what the rest is. In verses 3 to 7 he begins to explain what the rest is. He says that there is a "rest that remains" for Christians. That's the third part of his argument. In verses 8 to 10 he explains that this rest that he's talking about is not something that we fully experience in this world. We have a foretaste of it but it is something that God doesn't fully gives us until Jesus comes again. Then, this ultimate rest will be given to His people. Then in verse 11, fifthly, he gives that exhortation to you to enter into that rest. You embrace this rest that he's been talking about. Then in verses 12 and 13 he says you need to search your hearts, you need to search your hearts to see whether your heart is really hoping for this rest or whether you're hoping for a rest in this world, because that difference is of eternal consequence. That's the six part flow of his argument. But again, the one-point message is simply this — enter the rest.

Now let's pray before we hear God's Word.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and it is true. It is the truth by which You are sanctifying Your people and it is the truth by which You are saving sinners. So save us by Your Word and sanctify us by Your Word, O Lord, and we'll give You all the praise and glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in Hebrews chapter 4 beginning in verse 1:

"Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

'As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,''

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. ' And again in this passage he said,

'They shall not enter my rest. '

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, 'Today,' saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. '

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

All of us know that we need rest. Sometimes we're more aware of that than at others. But the question is, "What is the rest that we are aiming for?" Are we banking on that rest being supplied to us by this world and enjoyed in this world, or are we looking for a rest that remains, a rest that is yet to come? That's the issue that the author of Hebrews wants us to wrestle with today. And the one-point sermon that he wants to bring home to you is to enter into that rest. He wants you to understand what the rest is that you need to enter. He wants you to know why you need to enter it. He wants you to know how you enter that rest. So let's follow along his argument together as we explore this one-point message from the author of Hebrews.

DON'T FAIL TO REACH THE REST THAT REMAINS

The first point of his argument you'll see in verse 1. "Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should have seemed to have failed to reach it. " His point is simply this — don't fail to reach the rest that remains. Now why is that on his mind? Well if you look at the very last words of Hebrews chapter 3, he has quoted Psalm 95 verse 11 in verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 3, "I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" and then he has said in verse 19, "They were unable to enter" — enter what? Enter the rest, "because of unbelief. " And so he's got this rest on his mind. He's got a picture of the children of Israel in the wilderness, redeemed by God through mighty acts out of Egypt, brought across the Red Sea on dry ground, brought through the wilderness through mighty miracles, poised to enter the Promised Land, but hundreds of thousands of them end up dying in the wilderness. Why? They did not enter the rest. And he's got that on his mind. And he's not preaching this message to you and to me and he's saying, "I don't want you to fail to enter the rest of God the way that they failed to enter the rest of God. "

You know, very often we look at Old Testament characters like David or Daniel or Joseph and we say to people, "Be like David," or "Dare to be a Daniel," or "Flee from sin like Joseph," and we commend them as positive examples. And that's appropriate to do from time to time, but very often the New Testament looks back to the Old Testament and its message to you is, "Don't do what they did" You remember the moving testimony that Gene McRoberts gave us during the Missions Conference when — here was his fundamental message to us: "Don't be like me. " That was his message. "Don't be like me and have a narrow view of missions. Have a big view of what God is doing in missions and your involvement and commitment in that. " Well that's kind of what the author of Hebrews is doing here. He's pointing us back to the children of Israel and saying, "See how they did? See what they did? Don't do that. Don't be like them. Don't fail to enter the rest. "

THE GOSPEL DOES NOT BENEFIT APART FROM FAITH

Then he says, look at verse 2, "For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. " Now this is a chilling passage. What he is saying, and this is the second part of his argument, is that the Gospel didn't benefit those in the wilderness who didn't believe. Did you catch that he said that "the good news came to them"? Look at what he says in the first words of verse 2. "For good news came to us just as to them. " In other words, the Gospel was preached to them just like it's been preached to us. Have you ever wondered whether the Gospel is in the Old Testament? Well the author of Hebrews has just told you that it is. Sometimes we say, "Well we know we have the Gospel; did they have the Gospel?" The New Testament writers asked that question the other way around. "We know they have the Gospel; do we still have the same Gospel?" "Yes," is the answer. So when the apostle Paul wants to explain the Gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, where does he go to prove that? Genesis chapter 15, the very first book of the Bible, and he takes us to Genesis 15:6 where Abraham believed and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness. The just shall live by faith. And so he goes right to the Old Testament to preach justification by grace to us. Why? Because that message is the old, old story; it's the Gospel that's been proclaimed since Genesis 3:15. The Old Testament saints heard the Gospel.

That's the point of Hebrews 4 verse 2, and yet listen to these chilling words. "But the message they heard did not benefit them. " The good news came to them, God has redeemed them out of Egypt, He has made promises to them, He promised His providence over them, and yet His promises, His good news, His redemption did not benefit them. That ought to move your heart, that people would have seen the mighty redeeming acts of God and heard His voice — remember, He spoke Himself the Ten Commandments to them! He made promises to them, He gave commands to them, and they did not listen, they did not benefit. Why? Well the end of the verse tells you. Look again at the end of verse 2 — "Because they were not united by faith with those who listened. " They didn't benefit from the good news which was proclaimed to them by God Himself and by Moses and Aaron because they didn't believe. That was their fundamental failure. Their fundamental disobedience was that they did not believe. That's the second point of his argument.

CHOOSE WHETHER YOU WILL ENTER THE REST

Third, if you'll look at verses 3 to 7, he goes on to say, "It still remains for some to enter into this rest that I'm talking about. " Now you keep saying, "You haven't told me what the rest is!" Well hold on! He'll tell you that in a minute. He'll get back to that. But right now what he wants you to understand is, this is not just an issue of ancient history — you know, you're going back and learning stories from the Hebrew Bible that are interesting but don't really have to do anything with you today. No, he is saying this is an issue that is very timely; it's an issue for us today, because the issue for us is, "Are we going to enter into that rest?" They didn't because they didn't believe, and hundreds of thousands of them died in the wilderness and never entered the Promised Land. And so he says here in verses 3 to 7, "It remains for some to enter this rest. "

Look at verse 6. "Therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, so again he appoints a certain day, 'Today,' saying through David, so long afterward in the words already quoted, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. '" Now he's applying Psalm 95 verse 11 to you and me. And he's saying, "I'm not just giving you a Bible lesson about the children of Israel in the wilderness, I'm giving you a message, a call, a charge, an exhortation for you today. Don't disobey in the wilderness of life like they did. Don't fail to believe, because today there is an issue before you — choose you this day whom you will serve. Choose you whether you will enter into the rest. It remains for some to enter into the rest that remains. That's the third part of his argument.

A HEAVENLY REST

The fourth part you'll see in verses 8 to 10. Finally he's going to begin to tell you what the rest is. "If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. " Ah-ha, now he's saying, "The rest that I'm talking about is not the land of Canaan. " So you might think, "Okay, the children of Israel didn't believe God in the wilderness so they've died in the wilderness and therefore they didn't enter into the rest of the land of Canaan. " Well that's true, and the land of Canaan he's about to say is going to be a picture of the ultimate rest, but it's not the ultimate rest. And he explains that in the very next verses. "If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. " In other words, if Joshua, when he did bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land forty years later, was giving them the ultimate rest, God wouldn't still be speaking about a rest that is still to come.

So he says this, "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. " In other words, the rest that He wants you to enter is not a rest from three and a half thousand years ago in the land of Canaan; it is a rest that remains. It is a rest that is yet to come. It is a heavenly rest that is given by God to those who trust in Him. He's asking you not to put all your hope in this life. He's asking you not to put your faith in this world. He's asking you to put your faith in God and put your hope on something more than this world, not because He doesn't want you to care about this world, not because He doesn't want you to appreciate the millions of blessings God pours out on us in this world, not because He wants to deny that we have a little bit of a foretaste of even that ultimate rest and blessing even here and now.

Do you realize that Sundays, in light of verses 8 to 10, what we do together on Sundays is meant to be a little taste of that rest to come? And when we're converted and saved, united to Christ, we get a little taste of the peace and the blessing to come, because what is the rest that God is offering His people? It is harmony with Himself, and you can't have harmony with Himself unless your heart has been changed, you've been regenerated, unless your faith is on Him. You can't have peace with God until He has, by the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, given you peace with Him. But when you do experience that in this life, what are you experiencing? A little foretaste of the ultimate peace to come. But his point is this. He's saying, "Christian, this world is not your home. This isn't where your rest is. Your home, your rest, is yet to come, so don't have all your hope in this life. Don't seek your ultimate rest in this life. " Malcolm Muggeridge once said, "The only ultimate tragedy is that we make this earth our home. " The only ultimate tragedy is that we make this earth our home. In other words, we put all our eggs in this basket. All of our hope, all of our longing for satisfaction, all our desires for rest and joy and peace, we pour into this life and we don't set our hearts on the rest to come.

SET YOUR HEART ON ENTERING THE REST

And so what's he saying to us here? He just comes out and says it in verse 11, doesn't he? And this is the fifth part of his argument. "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. " In other words, he's saying, "Christian, set your heart on entering that rest. Seek your ultimate peace and joy and favor and satisfaction and fulfillment not here but in God and in the rest that only He can give and that He will only ultimately give not in this life. Do you remember what Paul will say? If we have believed what we believe for this life only, then we are, of all men, most miserable. In 1 Corinthians 15 he says the Christian faith is not worth it unless there is a resurrection that awaits for us and a rest that we will enter. You know, some people might say, "Even if there is not an afterlife, you know, the Christian life is a noble, moral life to live. " Paul says, "If I didn't believe in the resurrection, if I didn't believe in the rest to come, I would eat and drink because tomorrow I die and it's done. " It's because of the resurrection, it's because of the rest to come, that we are enabled to live this life as believers. And so he says, "Set your hearts on the rest to come. "

ASK THE WORD TO TEST YOUR HEART

And the sixth part of his argument you'll see in verses 12 and 13. He says you need to set your heart on entering the rest in light of what God Himself says to your heart in His Word and in light of what God sees in your heart, for "the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. " What's he saying? He's saying, "You know, it's entirely possible for a person to be a part of a Christian congregation and along with everybody else, hear the good news every Sunday and not believe it. And of course his case and point are the children of Israel in the wilderness. They heard the Gospel, they heard the promises of God, and they didn't believe. So this is a matter of the heart. Do you believe or not? What helps discern your heart? The Word of God. It can divide things that are indivisible and it can pierce down to the depths of your soul. And so he's saying, "Go to the Word and ask the Word to test your heart. What do I believe and where is my hope?"

And then he reminds you of this in verse 13. "No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. " In other words, he's saying, "The Lord sees your heart. " It's possible for us to fool one another. You know, we can wear the same church clothes and wear the same church smile and show up every Sunday, morning and evening, and fool everybody around us, but it will not fool God. He knows the heart. He knows whether we believe and where our hope is. So here's the one-point sermon — enter the rest. This is not your home. This world won't give you the rest. You'll get sweet foretastes of that rest, but this is not the final rest. Don't put all your hope in this life. Strive to enter the rest to come. How? By faith. The whole Christian life is lived by faith. That's one of the great themes of this book, from the first chapter to the last, that you live by faith. You believe God's Word, you embrace Christ as He is offered in the Gospel, you trust Christ, you believe the Word, you enter into the rest by faith. Have you done that?

Then, in the very words of the author of Hebrews, I want to say to you, "Today, today, if you have heard God's voice, do not harden your heart. " Enter the rest. Believe on Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel and set your hope on the things that are above, the things that are still to come. It won't make you less caring and concerned about the world around you; it will make you more caring and concerned about the world around you. But you won't put all your hope here, because if you put all your hope here it's the greatest tragedy that you could ever possibly encounter, because you were made for eternity, and what you do now counts for eternity. And if you do not, by faith, set your hearts on the rest that is to come and believe in Jesus Christ, you will have lost the usefulness and the fruitfulness that you could have had in this world and you will have lost the rest that you could have had for eternity. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Enter the rest. Believe on Jesus. Embrace the Gospel. Hope for the life to come. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this Word and we ask that You would make it effectual in our hearts by the work of Your Holy Spirit so that it would not be said of anyone in this room like it was said of the children of Israel in the wilderness that the Word did not profit them because they did not believe. Lord God, by Your Spirit, grant us to believe, in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you take your hymnals in hand and turn with me to number 393 and we're going to sing about this rest to come.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mercy and Grace in Time of Need - Hebrews 4:14-16

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4. We're beginning a new section of this book today which speaks of Jesus as a better priest. And in chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 we'll see that theme repeatedly. This morning I'd invite you to look back to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1 and also verse 11 because in those verses you will see an exhortation in language that you are going to meet again in the passage we're studying today. We're going to be looking at verses 14, 15, and 16. But in chapter 4 verse 1 and in chapter 4 verse 11, you will find an exhortation. The exhortation is, "Let us. " In verse 1 it's "Let us not fail to enter the rest that remains. " In verse 11 it is, "Let us strive to enter that rest. " And so chapter 4, verses 1 to 14, is an extended exhortation but it's a warning. It's a warning against failing to live life in such a way that you enter in to the ultimate rest that God intends for His people, and so it's a scary passage. There are a number of these warning passages that we've already met in Hebrews and there are more warning passages to come, but it's followed by the passage we're going to study here today which is a passage of comfort. And the two"Let us" that we meet in verse 14 and in 16, are positive and strengthening and encouraging.

And I'd like you to note what they are because the whole passage is built around them. In verse 14, we have this exhortation: "Let us hold fast our confession. " And the part of the sentence that comes before it is designed to encourage you to understand and to experience the blessing of following that exhortation. And then if you look at verse 16, the second exhortation that we meet in the passage is, "Let us then with confidence draw near. " So you have two exhortations. "Let us hold fast to our confession," verse 14; "Let us draw near. " And all of the words around those exhortations, before and after, are encouragements, inducements, to your doing what those exhortations as you to do. And that's what we're going to be studying together today. Let's pray before we read and hear God's Word.

Heavenly Father, believing You and drawing near can be very hard in some places in Christian experience. Some situations that we are in are so difficult that we have trouble believing. And some circumstances in which we find ourselves, not least our sin, make it hard for us to draw near. And You know that, and that's why You wrote this passage. We pray that You would open our eyes and that by the Spirit You would apply this truth to our hearts so that we believe and trust and draw near in comfort. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it:

"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

I love what Martin Luther says about this passage. He says, "First, the apostle terrifies us and then he comforts us. " He's talking about the warning in Hebrews 4:1-13 and he says it's terrifying to think that we could fail to believe and fail to enter into the rest that the Lord has so graciously provided. But after he warns us, after he terrifies us, he comforts us. And boy does he comfort us in these verses. I want us to look at the two exhortations in this passage and I want us to understand what these exhortations mean because you know the language of these exhortations. The language of these exhortations are probably found in your own personal prayers. They're certainly found in many of the hymns that we sing. But sometimes we don't actually understand the words that we're singing, and in that we miss a blessing. And so I want us to understand the exhortations. I want you to know what these words mean. But I also want you to understand why it was so important for the author of Hebrews to exhort you in these ways. And then especially I want you to see what he gives to encourage you in these exhortations.

LET US HOLD FAST OUR CONFESSION

So let's look at verse 14 and we'll address the first exhortation. You see it there at the very end of the sentence — "Let us hold fast our confession. " Now what does that mean? He is saying to you, "Christian, hang tight to Jesus! Hang tight to your confession of Him! Hold fast to Jesus! Hold on to your confession of Him! Don't abandon your profession of Jesus! Don't stop believing in Jesus! Don't stop clinging to Jesus! Hold fast to Him!" And why is he giving this exhortation? He is saying that we as believers need to continue in our loyalty to Christ. Why? Why is he saying this? Because it is so easy to find ourselves in the Christian life where it becomes hard to believe.

Last April, 2012, John Piper stood up at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, Kentucky to preach a passage out of the book of Jude and he opened with these words. "I am amazed that I am still a Christian, and that I am still a Christian, is due to the fact that God has preserved me. " You know, my friends, believing is not an easy thing. You know, sometimes we act like believing is easy; it's not an easy thing. To have faith is a gift. Paul says, "it is the gift of God. " To persevere in faith is the gift of God. Believing is not easy. Some of you are in circumstances in life where believing that God is God and God is good is very, very hard. And that's why the author of Hebrews is saying to you, "Hold fast to Jesus! Don't let go of your confession of Him! Cling tight to Him!" Hold fast.

But he doesn't just say, "Do it!" he gives you comfort in doing it; he gives you help in doing it. He gives you encouragement in doing it. He gives you an inducement to do it. And if you'll look back at the beginning of verse 14 you'll see that he's going to tell you three things to move you to hold fast to Jesus. And the first thing that he says is this. "Since we have…let us hold fast. " "Since we have" — what? "A great high priest. " What is the author of Hebrews saying? He's saying, "You know, Aaron was a high priest and sometimes he was a pretty good high priest. He wasn't a very good high priest the day that he made a golden calf and gave it to Israel, but usually he was a pretty good high priest. And there have been other good high priests. In fact, there have been numerous good priests in the Old Testament; the Bible records their stories, how they helped the people of God. But you, Christian, have a great high priest. Sometimes our dear Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox friends will say to Protestants, "Why don't you have priests?" You know what your answer is, don't you? "We do! We have a great high priest and He's such a great high priest that we don't need any human priest because no human priest can match Him! He's a great high priest!" That's the first reason why you need to cling to Jesus, because He's a great high priest.

But second, look at the next phrase. "He has passed through the heavens. " He's not just like the Old Testament high priests who got to go into the tabernacle or into the temple and into the holy of holies once a year, into that place that represented the presence of God. He has gone into the very presence of God! He is sitting at the right hand of the Father on high! He has passed through the heavens. He's not in a place that represents the presence of God with His people; He's in the presence of God! That's where our high priest is and that's where He's going to take us. He's there to prepare a place for us and He promises us that if He's gone to prepare a place for us He will come that where He is we may be also; therefore hold fast to Jesus.

And then he says. He is Jesus, "the Son of God. " Now who would you like to have for your intercessor? Who would you like to have for your mediator? Who would you like to have for your representative with God? Hmmm, God's Son sounds like a pretty good idea! This priest isn't just a godly man called to an important pastoral task as Aaron and his sons and all the Levites were in the days of the old covenant. This is God in the flesh, called and appointed by His Father to be your mediator and mine, to be our priest. That's your priest! You see, his whole point is to say, "Look at your priest. Look at Jesus. Look at who He is; look at what He's like. " And I want you to understand, my friends, every time you study what the Bible teaches about Jesus, every time you study what the Bible teaches about Christ, that truth is designed to help you keep the faith. That trust is designed to help you hold fast your confession. That trust is designed to help you cling tightly to Jesus because there is nothing that can make you cling tightly to Jesus better than a sight of Jesus Himself.

You know, your Christian friends can let you down, your church can disappoint you, life can cave in around your ears, but Jesus will never disappoint you. There's no one like Him. And the sight of Him strengthens faith. And so before he says to you, "Christian, keep on believing. Hold fast to your confession. Cling to Jesus," what does he do? He just says, "Let me show you Jesus. " That's why you need to be in the Word, that's why you need to be studying Jesus, because the Jesus taught by the Word is the Jesus who keeps you believing because there is nothing more conducive to your believing in Jesus than seeing Him as He is. So we're not aiming for you to have your heads crammed with facts that don't relate to anything else; the study that we do in the Word is about the stuff that keeps you believing. Seeing your Savior keeps you confessing Him. And that's the first exhortation that we see in this passage.

LET US DRAW NEAR TO THE THRONE OF GRACE

And the second one is like it and glorious. Look at it in verse 16. "Let us then with confidence draw near the throne of grace. " What does that mean? What does it mean to, with confidence, draw near the throne of grace? It means to come near to God with boldness. It means to come to God with freedom and with confidence because of Jesus. The author is exhorting us as Christians to boldly and believingly approach God, to boldly approach God in trust and in prayer because of the kind of priests that Christ is. Now why does he need to do that? Because unbelievers and believers alike know things about ourselves that we don't even want to share with those who we love the most and who love us the most, because very frankly we're humiliated by those things. We don't want anyone to know those things.

You know there are respectable sins that we will talk about in polite company. You know we can feel good — "You know I struggle with worry. " You know everybody kind of nods — "Yeah, yeah. " But do you know if you're a pedophile you're probably not going to confess that in small group. You know there are very few people that can screw up the courage in a company, even of good friends, to say, "I am completely dominated by my desire for alcohol or drugs. I'm a substance abuser. " Or, "I've struggled with same-sex attraction all my life. " You know there are some things you just don't want to tell other people. And not coming to God with those things keeps you from the blessings that are awaiting you. And so the author of Hebrews says, "Let us draw near. " And he doesn't just say, "Let us draw near;" he says, "Let us draw near once again because of who Jesus is. " Just like we're to hold fast because of who Jesus is, we're going to draw near because of who Jesus is.

And look at what he says. You see it right before the exhortation. "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is in every respected tempted as we are yet without sin. " You're not expecting that. You know after you've just been told that He is a great high priest who entered into the very presence of God and He is the Son of God, He's God in the flesh, you are not expecting the author of Hebrews to say, "And you know what? He understands your temptations. " That's not what you're expecting, but that's what he says before he tells you to draw near. Is that not glorious? It's one thing to believe; it's another thing to draw near. When you know how you have succumb to sin, when you know the sin that is in your heart, when you know the sin that's dominating your heart, it is very difficult to draw near, unless you're just a really good hypocrite. And so he says, "Let me tell you something about this Jesus. He sympathizes with your weakness because He has been tempted like you. " That's stunning.

You see, the author of Hebrews is not just saying, "Draw near to God because God knows what it's like to be a human because He created humans. " That's true, but he says more than that. He doesn't even say, "Draw near to God because God knows everything. He knows the sins that you're struggling with. " He says, "Draw near to God because when God sent His Son into this world He appointed for His Son to be fully human like you, and so He knows what it is like to be you. He knows what it is like to face your temptations. And so when you come to Him and you admit to Him what you're afraid to admit to anyone else, you're not going to face a sneer, you're not going to face condescension — 'You worm! How could you possibly struggle with that?' You're going to hear, 'I understand that. I was tempted that way too. '" It is mind-boggling to think that the Son of God knows how you feel to be tempted because He's been tempted in all ways like you. In fact, my friends, He has been tempted in ways that you and I will never ever understand. You know the funny thing is that it's we who can't understand what Jesus went through; it's not Jesus who can't understand what we went through. We can't understand what He went through, but He can understand what we go through.

I had a friend who had, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was struggling with same-sex attraction. And he went to a friend of mine who was a minister and with fear and trepidation he shared with him how he had fallen in that lifestyle into sin. And that minister said to him, "I've had that temptation all my life. By God's grace I've never given into it, but I know exactly, I know exactly what you're going through because I'm conscious of it every waking moment. " And in a way, exponentially greater than that, you cannot come to Jesus and surprise Him with your temptations. And you will never meet His sneer. And so the author of Hebrews is saying, "Draw near to your God because He knows what you're facing. He knows exactly what it feels like to be you. He knows exactly the sins that you're being tempted with. You've fallen to them, He hasn't, but He knows exactly what those temptations feel like. And when you come to Him, you're going to find not a word of rebuke or condescension, but you're going to here, 'Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. '"

You know, isn't this a glorious contrast? The children of Israel are redeemed out of Israel in the Old Testament, they go into the wilderness to worship the living God, they get to the mountain and what does God say? "Not too close. Don't touch the mountain or you'll die. " And here we're told, "No, no, My people. Come close. " Why? Because of Jesus! Come close! Come to Your Father. Because of Jesus, He understands. I want you to think of it, my friends, there is a human being like you sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty today! There is a human being who has been tempted like you in more ways than you who is sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and He is ever living to intercede for you! You see what the author of Hebrews is saying? "Come close to your God. Jesus has been in your flesh. He knows what it's like to be human. He knows how to help you in your temptation. "

You know this is the exact argument that Charles Wesley is making in the hymn, "Arise, My Soul, Arise. " Just take your hymnals out and look at number 305. What's Charles Wesley's argument? He's wrestling with what? Guilty fears. "Arise, my soul, arise, shake off your guilty fears. " In other words, "I'm afraid, God, to approach You because I know what I'm like, I know what I am, I know who I am, I know what I've done, I know You ought to condemn me!" "Arise, my soul, arise, shake off your guilty fears. " What's Charles Wesley going to argue against those guilty fears? "The bleeding Sacrifice on my behalf appears. " He appeals to Jesus. And throughout that song he just piles up reason after reason based on Jesus why he ought to not be kept of drawing near to God because of his guilty fears because Jesus has covered those sins and He's dealt with that guilt at Calvary. And what are his last words? "With confidence I now draw nigh, with confidence I now draw nigh, and 'Abba, Father!' cry. " Father, Abba, Father, cry. That's exactly what the author of Hebrews is saying to you. Come close to the God who is your Father in Jesus Christ because Jesus knows the temptation to sin that you're enduring and He will not break a bruised reed and He will not put old a smoldering flax, but He'll bring you to God and He'll put you back together.

And then did you see the last words of verse 16? What are you going to find when you come to Him? Mercy and grace. You're going to get the help that you need — mercy. You're going to get favor that you don't deserve — grace. You're going to get the help that you need; you're going to get favor that you don't deserve. There's nobody like this Jesus. There's nobody like Him! Hold fast to Him. Draw near to God. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your Word. We pray that You would work it deep into our hearts so that we would believe it, so that we can really cling to Jesus and draw near to You because You've dealt with our sins at Calvary and You will never leave us or forsake us but You'll always give us the help that we need and You'll give us blessings that we could never ever deserve. In Jesus' name, amen.

Now we've got to sing to Jesus, so would you take your hymnals out and turn to number 165 and let's sing, "Ye Servants of God, Your Master Proclaim. "

What does Jesus give you when you come to Him? Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Heard Because of His Reverence - Hebrews 5:1-10

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 5. You know, without Easter, Christmas would be just another cold day in December. Easter changes everything. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ turns us inside out and turns the world upside-down. But as David's already prayed this morning, it's possible to come to Easter and even on Easter to be a little bit jaded, a little bit cynical about the things that we're singing and the things that we're reading. "Does this Jesus, who is raised from the dead, answer my deepest needs? Is this the Savior that I really need?"

Well the author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 5 is making an emphatic assertion, "Yes, this is the Savior you need. The one who's resurrected is the Savior you need. " We had been taking account - so far in the book of Hebrews, the author of Hebrews has given us six reasons why Jesus is the priest we need, why He's better than any old covenant priest. The passage that we're going to look at this morning will emphasize three things in particular about Jesus that make Him the Savior that we need. The one who is resurrected answers our need, and we'll see that in three ways in the passage that we're going to study this morning. And we'll see it related to the doctrine of the resurrection in the final two verses, in verses 9 and 10. Before we read God's Word, let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Lord, this is Your Word and the thing that blinds us the most from understanding it is our pursuit of our own agendas and the hardness of our hearts due to our own sin. So we ask that by Your Holy Spirit You would open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things from Your Word, that we might see our sin and we might see how the Savior answers that sin and responds and supplies all our needs. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in Hebrews 5 beginning in verse 1:

"For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'; as he says also in another place, 'You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. '

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he has heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

In this passage, the author of Hebrews is explaining to us how Jesus, the one who is resurrected, is in fact the Savior that we need. The one designated by God as high priest in His resurrection as the best and only and last priest that God would ever give to mankind, is the Savior, the priest that we need. And he shows us that in three particular ways. First, as you look at verses 1 to 6, especially zero-in on verse 2, and notice something that the author of Hebrews says about human high priests. He says this about them — "He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. " Now you may say to yourself, "Well how can Jesus relate to me? How can Jesus relate to me because He's sinless? He's not like the human high priest who were beset with weakness and who has to has to offer up sins, offer up sacrifice for his own sins as well as for our sins. How can Jesus relate to us?" Well he's already said. Look back at Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15. He's already said, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. " By repeating these words in verses 2 and 3 especially, in that section from verses 1 to 6 as he speaks about human high priests, the author of Hebrews is emphasizing this — we have a compassionate Savior. We have a Savior who is able to sympathize with us in our struggle with sin.

JESUS IS A COMPASSIONATE SAVIOR WHO IS ABLE

TO SYMPATHIZE WITH OUR STRUGGLE WITH SIN

But again you ask me, "How can that be since He didn't sin?" And the answer is this. Jesus' perfection did not limit His experience in temptation; it enhanced it. Jesus' perfection did not limit the intensity of His experience in temptation; it enhanced it. And therefore, Jesus' perfection did not limit His ability to sympathize with you in your struggle with sin; it enhanced it. Listen to these words from Raymond Brown, the commentator on the book of Hebrews:

"Jesus' whole life was one of temptation. " Just take that in. "Jesus' whole life was one of temptation and the very fact that He has powers and abilities which we do not possess, only added to the stress. He was the fullest and most vivid personality that this world has ever known and the very richness of His human nature exposed Him all the more fully to the assaults of temptation. No one on earth, before or since, has ever been through such spiritual desolation and human anguish. For this reason, He can help us in our moments of temptation. He is aware of our needs because He has experienced to the full the pressures and testings of life in a godless world. "

The author of Hebrews is telling you here in Hebrews 5:1-6 and especially in verses 2 and 3, following on what he's just said in Hebrews 4:15, he's saying this to you, "Jesus can relate. He knows how to sympathize with you in your struggles with sin. He knows what it is like to be tempted. " I want you to take that in for just a moment. You remember that scene when Jesus has just explained to His disciples that He must go to Calvary and die for us? And Peter's response is, "Never! Never! I'll defend You to the end! I'll take them out with my sword! Everybody else may abandon You but I won't!" And you remember Jesus' response? It sounds harsh to the ears, doesn't it? "Get thee behind Me, Satan!" What's that about? My friends, that is about a response to temptation that you and I cannot possibly understand. That strong response of our Savior to His loyal but erring disciples, is an indication of the depth of temptation that was assaulting His soul at that very time as the evil one said, "Abandon the plan! You see, even Your disciples will defend You. They'll keep You from going to that tree. You don't have to go there. " Jesus' response is, when those words come from the mouth of His faithful disciple, "Get thee behind Me, Satan!" It's just another indication of the fact that it's not Jesus who can't relate to our temptations; it's we who can't relate to His.

None of us have ever gone through a nanosecond of what Jesus went through and that is why He can say to you, "I know what it's like to be you. I know what it's like to be tempted. I can sympathize with you in your struggle with sin because, child, I've experienced things that, thank God, you will never experience. And I know some things about how to fight sin. In fact, I conquered sin for you. " You have a sympathetic Savior. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. You have a compassionate Savior. You've got a Savior who can relate to you, who understands what it's like to be in your skin, who knows what it's like to fight against your temptations. He understands; He knows. He's compassionate; He's sympathetic. That's the first thing that he tells us.

JESUS UNDERSTANDS WHAT IT MEANS

TO SUBMIT TO THE WILL OF GOD

The second thing is this. And look especially at verse 7. And my friends, we could meditate on Hebrews 5:7 for the rest of our lives and never understand it all. It's that glorious. But just a few minutes — look at it. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence. " You know just that phrase, "He was heard because of His reverence," He was heard because of His fear of God, He was heard because of His piety — you could meditate on that phrase alone for the rest of your life and never exhaust it. But it's the phrase right before that I want you to think about for a second. Because you know what the author of Hebrews is saying here? He's saying, "You have a Savior who understands what it means to submit to the will of God. " You know one of the hardest things to do in our lives as Christians is to trust God and to submit ourselves to His will when we don't understand what He is doing in our lives and when His answers to our prayers are not the answers that we have planned out for His answers to our prayers. And Hebrews 5:7 is saying, "You have a Savior who understands that. "

Did you miss it? Did you hear what it says? "Jesus, in his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears" — to whom? "To him who was able to save him from death. " Let me ask you a question. Did He do that? No, He did not. Jesus offered up prayers to Him who was able to save Him from death and Him who was able to save Him from death did not save Him from death! Hebrews 5:7 is reflecting very evidently on the Garden of Gethsemane, isn't it, where Jesus prays to His Father, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me!" And the Father's answer is, "No. "

Have you ever cried out to God with loud tears? "Oh God, heal my body!" "Oh God, bring my children to faith in Christ!" "Oh God, fix my marriage!" "Oh God, just give me a job!" And you got the answer, "No,"? The author of Hebrews is saying, "Jesus understands that. He knew what it was to submit Himself to the will of God. " Do you remember the rest of that prayer? "If it is possible, Father, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not My will but Thy will be done. " To that part of the prayer, the answer was, "Yes," but to the "let this cup pass from Me," the answer was, "No. " You have a Savior who knows what it is to live right there. And isn't that one of the great challenges of the Christian life? To keep believing, to keep trusting, and to submit yourself to the will of God when you don't like what's happening to you, when you don't understand what is happening to you, and when you're not getting the answer to prayer that you want? This is mind boggling, my friends. The author of Hebrews is saying that the second person of the Trinity can relate to you there, that He knows what it is like to get a "No" and submit Himself to that. He's the Savior you need. That's where we live. That's where we live in some of the hardest and most important places of our life. That is our home address. And if we didn't have a Savior who knew what it was like to live right there, we wouldn't have the Savior we need. But we do have the Savior we need. That's what the author of Hebrews is telling us here.

JESUS UNDERSTANDS SUFFERING

There's a third thing. Look at the very next verse. It's not only that we have a compassionate Savior who's able to sympathize with us in our struggles with sin, it's not only that we have a Savior that understands what it means to submit to the will of God. It is that we have a Savior who understands suffering. Look at verse 8. "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. " Now again, it's one of those sentences that you could spend the rest of your life meditating upon and never see the bottom of it. It's not that Jesus wasn't obedient and then suffered and then became obedient, it's not that Jesus was sort-of obedient and perfected His obedience after His suffering; it is that the totality of His obedience was not perfected until He had undergone all the experiences of suffering up to and including the humiliation that He endured on the cross. That's the perfection that is being talked about in verse 8 and that is referenced again in the first few words of verse 9. In other words, Jesus learned obedience as He walked the path of suffering, the whole of His life culminating in His humiliation on the cross, and at every point on the way He was equal to the demands of that suffering and fulfilled it perfectly until the totality of His suffering was complete on the cross. And in this He learned obedience.

That should remind us that obedience is not an easy thing. Obedience isn't a one-time thing. The Savior walked the path of suffering and He understood it's fruitfulness, it's fruitfulness in His life, it's fruitfulness in your life. And my friends, isn't that again something so important? Because there are people sitting right out there in front of me right now who know suffering. It's come in all sorts of shapes and sizes in your life. The question is, is there any fruitfulness in that suffering? And here's a Savior who knows suffering, His whole life is a life of suffering and temptation, and He was fruitful in that suffering. That suffering bore the fruit of a perfect obedience — active and passive obedience of Christ is in view here in this verse. The penal and the perceptive obedience of Christ is in view in this verse. That is, in the totality of His life, He obeyed God's Word and in His suffering, culminating on the cross, He bore in His own body the penalty for our breaking of the Word. And thus He fulfilled, in both ways, the Law of God. He kept it Himself; He bore your penalty for not keeping it. And so His suffering was exceedingly fruitful. It bore fruit in an obedience that saved you and me. You know salvation is by obedience; not your obedience, not my obedience, but Jesus' obedience. This is a very fruitful obedience and it was learned and earned in suffering. Are you suffering? Jesus understands that, and He understands fruitfulness in suffering.

Now the author of Hebrews is showing you those three things. He's a compassionate, sympathetic Savior, He's a Savior who understands submission to God's will, and He's a Savior that understands the fruitfulness of suffering and suffering bore the fruit of obedience in His life and blessed the world. And it is that Savior who is announced in the resurrection as the great high priest that you and I need. Look at verses 9 to 10. You have a Savior that God has designated as the last and best and only priest for humanity and He has designated Him such by the resurrection. Being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God a high priest. Where was He so designated? Look back to Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9. "Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death" — when was He crowned with glory and honor? In the wake of His suffering and death. Where is that first manifest? It is first manifest in His resurrection. In the resurrection, God says to all of us, "Behold, the last, the best, and the only priest you will ever need — a Savior who is sympathetic with your sin, He understands submission, and He has experienced suffering and He knows how to make it truthful. He is the Savior you need. " That's why this message is perfect for Easter Sunday, because the divine, risen, Son of God that we celebrate on this glorious day is in fact exactly who you need for your Savior.

So I want to say two things. If you're an unbeliever here today or listening on radio or television, believe on Jesus Christ. He is the Savior you need. And listen to what Jesus says — "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. " If you've an unbeliever, the only priest who understands your sin and your weakness, who understands the submission to the will of God, who understands suffering, who understands how to liberate you from sin, who has in fact liberated from sin all who trust in Him, is Jesus Christ. Therefore, you must come to Him. And if you're a believer in Christ today, you need to believe on Him as well, because we not only have salvation by faith, we walk by faith, not by sight. When you become a Christian, your adventure in trusting in God has not come to an end; it's just a beginning. You come to God by faith; you live with God by faith; you'll go to glory by faith. So believer, struggling here today with the things you're having to submit to, with the struggles against sin that you're fighting, with the suffering that you're enduring, believe that Jesus is the Savior you need. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us the Savior we need and in His resurrection designating Him to us as the last and best and only priest that we will ever need, according to the order of Melchizedek. And grant today that we will all believe Him and believe on Him. In Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's sing to Him, taking our hymnals in hand and turning to number 286 — "Worship Christ, the Risen King!"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

It's Hard to Explain - Hebrews 5:11-6:3

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 5. We're going to be looking at verses 11 to the end of the chapter and then we're going to pick up in chapter 6 verse 1 and read to verse 3. So we'll read from Hebrews 5:11 all the way through Hebrews 6:3 this morning. As you're turning there, let me ask you to look back just a few verses before this section, back to Hebrews 4:14, and just scan the words down to Hebrews 5:10, especially looking at Hebrews 5:6 and 5:10 where the name, Melchizedek is mentioned. If you will remember, the last time we were together we were looking at Hebrews 5:1-10; the time before that we were looking at Hebrews 4:14-16. And we saw in those two passages that God has given us a sympathetic, submissive, and suffering Savior. And the point being, that we have a Savior who is sympathetic with our struggles in sin, He understands what it means to submit to the will of God, and He understands what it means to suffer and He knows how God uses suffering to bring about obedience and suffering in the Christian life. The whole point being, if we have a Savior who understands what we're going through, He can relate to our struggles in this life.

In the course of making that argument, the author of Hebrews relates Jesus in His ministry to Melchizedek. Now many of you will remember that Melchizedek makes an appearance in Genesis chapter 14. He is the King of Salem, he is the high priest of God Most High, and Abraham goes and makes him an offering after he has won a great battle against the adversary who had captured his cousin or his nephew, Lot, and had taken away his family. Well in Psalm 110, Melchizedek makes another appearance, and it's the passage in Psalm 110 that is quoted in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6. At the end of that passage we're told, Hebrews 5:10, that God has made Jesus to be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. It's part of the way that God is emphasizing that Jesus is the last, best, and only priest that you will ever need. And what you are expecting to happen is for the author of Hebrews to go into a section in which he sort of unfolds that theme of Jesus as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek because even if you're a pretty good Bible student, you probably don't know a whole lot about Melchizedek. And you want to know more and you want to know more about why Jesus is called a priest according to the order of Melchizedek and you're expecting that's where the author of Hebrews is going to go in this sermon. Instead, you get Hebrews 5 verses 11 to 6:3.

Now all of that was to explain to you that you are right to wonder why the author of Hebrews doesn't start expounding that theme. And if you look closely at Hebrews 5:11 through 6:3 he'll tell you exactly why. And the problem is, take a look at verse 11, the problem is, he says, is his congregation that he's originally preaching this message to is "dull of hearing. " Do you see those words in Hebrews 5:11? They're "dull of hearing. " Now I want you to look at four things in this passage. I want you to be on the lookout for this because they're all connected with that idea. First of all, be on the lookout for that phrase in 5:11, "dull of hearing. " Second, look in verse 13 and notice the phrase, "unskilled in the word of righteousness. " The author of Hebrews is concerned about them being dull of hearing; he's concerned about them being unskilled in the word of righteousness. You ought to scratch your head a little bit and ask yourself the question, "What does that mean?"

Third, be on the lookout for what he says in verse 14. He says that the mature "have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. " And it's especially that phrase, "powers of discernment. " And he's concerned because what's he just said in the previous verse? That they're not mature. The mature ought to have their powers of discernment trained, but you're not mature until your powers of discernment are trained. So he's concerned about dullness of hearing, he's concerned about people being unskilled in the word of righteousness, and he's concerned about people who don't have their powers of discernment trained. And then fourth, look in chapter 6 verse 1. There, he says that we need to "leave the elementary doctrine of Christ" — and we'll talk about what that means in a minute — "and go on to maturity. " And it is clear in this passage, because he's already said it, that one of his big concerns is that some people in his congregation aren't going on to maturity.

So I want you to be on the lookout for those four things, but as you do, let me give a word of explanation. It is possible for sincere Christians struggling with their own sins to come to a passage like this and be discouraged. It is not the goal of the author of Hebrews to discourage sincere Christians struggling with sin in this passage. His goal is not to unsettle as many of you as possible as to your assurance of salvation. If you are a sincere Christian you are struggling with sin, because we are not brought into the Christian life instantaneously perfected. We are brought into the Christian life into a lifelong fight against sin. And even godly Christians, even where they see victory in certain areas of their life over sin, can see other areas where they continue to struggle. And the author of Hebrews is this warning passage is not trying to discourage that kind of a believer. He is very concerned to make sure that those who are what he calls "dull of hearing" wake up. So we need to understand what he means by dull of hearing. Again, his goal is not to unsettle sincere Christians in their assurance of salvation. His goal is to wake up people who are sitting in the pews who are spiritually asleep to the Word of God. That's his concern.

So let's pray and ask God's help and blessing as we read His Word.

Heavenly Father, Your Holy Spirit inspired the Word of God, so by the same Spirit who inspired the Word of God, we ask that You would open our eyes to understand, believe, and obey the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews 5:11:

"About this we have much to say, but it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is fort he mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,and of instruction about washings,the laying on of hands,the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

One of my wife's favorite movies is Apollo 13 and she especially likes the scene when the character played by Ed Harris says, when everybody is spelling out doom and gloom in mission control and saying this is going to be the worst disaster in the history of NASA when he stands up and he pulls down his vest and he says, "Begging your pardon, sir, I believe that this will be our finest hour!" That's the movie, you remember, where the immortal words are slightly misquoted when the astronauts radio back to mission control, "Houston, we have a problem. " Now how it actually happened is they said, "Houston, we have a problem here," and Houston said, "Excuse me, Apollo 13? What?" And they came back and they said, "Houston, we had a problem. " You remember why? A part of the engine coil was defective, blew up, crippled the ship, and brought into question not only whether the astronauts were going to be able to complete their mission but whether they were even going to be able to get back home. And so they radioed, "Houston, we've had a problem," which became the theme, "Houston, we have a problem," which we use in all sorts of popular settings in our culture. It's become a phrase that we use in our common conversations.

Well the author of Hebrews is saying here, "Houston, we have a problem. " The problem is not sincere Christians struggling with sin; that's the normal Christian life. The problem is people sitting under the Word of God and never listening to it. That's a very different problem than sincere Christians struggling with sin. It's the problem of people who are gathering with the people of God, they're under the Word of God, but the Word of God is never getting into their hearts and minds. They're dull of hearing; they're not listening to the Word of God. And the author of Hebrews is pausing right here and instead of going into a glorious exposition of Jesus as the great high priest according to Melchizedek, he's saying, "Houston, we have a problem. " It's almost like there's been some interaction in the middle of this sermon. It's almost like when he gets to Hebrews 5:10 and says that Jesus is a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, all sorts of hands have gone up in the room saying, "Pastor, we have no idea what you're talking about," and it's almost like he pauses right there and he says, "You're not listening to me. You're not listening to me. "

I remember when I was teaching a Bible study to high school students, very intelligent, very well-educated Bible students in West County St. Louis, and in the course of the Bible lesson I made a passing reference to Samson and Delilah. I said, "You know, it's just like Samson and Delilah. " And I looked into their very intelligent faces and I saw these blank stares looking back at me. And it dawned upon me, "You don't know the story of Samson and Delilah!" And so I asked them, "Do you know the story of Samson and Delilah?" And they said — (shakes head, "No. ") And so I stopped in the middle of the Bible lesson and I told them the story of Samson and Delilah. It wasn't that they were stupid; they'd never heard it. They'd never studied it; they'd never been in church settings where the basic Bible stories had been taught, and so I had to stop and tell them. The problem here is a little bit different. These people have been being taught the Word of God but they haven't been listening. And so the author points out four things that he's concerned about; four problems that he's saying, "Houston, we have a problem" about.

DULL OF HEARING

The first thing is that very point that I just made. Look at verse 11. "About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. " Do you see what he's saying? He's saying, "I've got a lot I want to tell you about Jesus as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, but it's hard to explain, not, not because the truth is just totally beyond you, but because you're dull of hearing. " He's saying to this group, "The reason you don't understand what I'm trying to tell you about Melchizedek is because you're dull of hearing. You've not been motivated to hear and heed the basic things that I have been teaching you from the Word of God. You've not been motivated to learn and study the Word of God. The sound of my voice is hitting your ear drums but the truth that I'm speaking is not going in. You're not listening; you're switching off. "

And as I read this passage this week I thought, "Okay, I've been there. " I can remember times in high school and college where I was under faithful Bible teaching and my heart and mind and soul were a billion miles away thinking about something else! It was not that the preacher wasn't preaching something good, exciting, exhilarating, helpful, practical, it was that I was thinking about something else. Have you ever done that before? Have you ever been driving down the road and suddenly, fifteen seconds later, you realize that you don't remember the last green light you went through, you don't remember the last turn you made; you don't even remember how you got to where you are right now? You're just thankful that you weren't on the wrong side of the road! It's like you wake up! Where did that fifteen seconds of my life just go? What was I thinking about? And that's what the author of Hebrews is saying. There are some people sitting in his church and their minds are just somewhere else with regard to the proclamation of the Word of God. It may be it's their desires are set on something else. Maybe it's that they are so burdened by their problems that they're thinking about their problems and they're not listening to the Word of God. Maybe in our culture we're so distracted by the constant bombardment of social media and digital devices that our attention span is about 1. 3 seconds and it rolls over every 1. 3 seconds. But whatever the case is, they become dull to the Word of God. It's not getting in.

UNSKILLED IN THE WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

And what has this led to? Look secondly at what he says in verse 13. "Consequently, they are unskilled in the word of righteousness. " Now God's Word teaches us the way of righteousness. It teaches us about who God is, it teaches us about the salvation that He has accomplished for us, it teaches us about Jesus Christ, it teaches us about the Gospel, and having told us the way of salvation, which is by faith in Christ, it then teaches us how to live as Christians. And that's why he calls the Word of God here, "the word of righteousness. " And as you study the Word of God, what happens? You become skilled in the way of living the Christian life. It's not just that your head gets filled up with Bible facts, though it's good to have a head full of Bible facts. It's that those Bible facts make you wise when applied by the Spirit to your heart and you begin to understand how the whole Bible hangs together, what the whole story line is, what the warp and whoop of the truth of God is, and how it teaches you to live the Christian life. Everything starts making sense and you're able to start looking at the world through the lens of the Bible and you're able to understand your own life and the way that you live the life because of what the Word of God teaches. But he says, "Since you're dull of hearing, since the sound waves are bouncing off of your eardrums but the truth is not going into your heart, you're unskilled in the word of righteousness. "

SOLID FOOD IS FOR THE MATURE

And then third, look at what he says in verse 14. "Solid food is for the mature. " And remember, he said to some of these people, "You're not mature. " "For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good and evil. " The mature are trained in constant practice in their study of the Word of God to be able to discern good and evil. This is moral, spiritual discernment that he is talking about - knowing right from wrong; knowing what you ought to do from what you ought not to do because you've been in the Word, because your conscience has been instructed by the Word. And he said, "You're not like that. You're not mature like that to be able to have that kind of spiritual discernment because the Word's not gotten into you because you're not into the Word. You're dull of hearing. "

GO ON TO MATURITY

And fourth, look at what he says in chapter 6 verse 1. "Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ to go on to maturity. " Now let me pause before — where I want to go is that phrase, "go on to maturity," but I know that you're thinking about something here. "What does he mean, 'Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ?' Does he mean, 'Okay, let's forget the basic things like Jesus and the Gospel?'" No, that's not what he's saying! You never ever forget Jesus and the Gospel. You live every day going back to the well of Jesus and the Gospel. He tells you what he means by "the elementary doctrine" here; he doesn't leave you to guess. It's listed for you in verses 2 and 3. Look at what he says. He says six things. He says, "Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. " Okay the preaching of repentance has gone all the way back to John the Baptist, not to mention the prophets. Okay, so this is basic stuff that, even as Jews, they would have heard good synagogue preaching about repentance and faith towards God. Okay, this is very, very basic to the Christian life — understanding faith, understanding trusting in God.

Third, "instruction about washings. " This may refer to the Old Testament washings. They're mentioned later on in the book of Hebrews, and remember these people are former Jews who are now Christians, so maybe they have questions about whether they're supposed to do the ceremonial washings. Or this could be referring to the difference between the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus. See, if they are Jewish proselytes to Christianity, it is possible that they would be aware, not only of Greek proselyte baptism, but they would be aware of the baptism that was given to John and they may be asking questions about how the baptism of John and Greek proselyte baptism relate to Christian baptism. But again, those are basic things about the Christian life that they ought to understand.

Then, fourth, "laying on of hands. " That could refer to laying hands on sacrifices, again, an Old Testament practice. That would make sense for a Jewish congregation. It could even refer to ordination where laying on of hands was used in the New Testament. Fifth, "the resurrection of the dead. " That's a basic truth that both Jewish people and Christians would have believed in the first century. And "eternal judgment" — again, that's the thing that both Jewish people and Christians would have believed in the first century. All of those six things he lists as basic things and they're still apparently hung up on issues relating to them and it's keeping them from getting into the meat of the Word of God so they can see how everything hangs together and so it can affect the way that they live the Christian life. That's what he means by saying, "I don't want you to be stuck on these elementary things. You ought to have understood these things once you were in Christ. You should have understood those things so that I can take you into the meat of the Word so that you can appreciate what it means that Jesus is a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek for you. I can't do that because you're not even listening to the basic things and I'm having to go over and over again. "

Now what does the author of Hebrews want? Look again to verse 1. He wants maturity. His goal is that these people mature in the faith but his point is this — you can't mature in the Christian life if you are dull of hearing towards the Word of God. If the Word of God isn't getting into your heart, you're not going to mature in the Christian life. He's making the same point that Paul makes in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 to 19. Would you turn with me there? In that prayer, Paul prays — he prays a lot of things but let me just tell you two things that he prays. Ephesians 3:14-19. He prays that you would be rooted and grounded in the knowledge of the love of God in Christ Jesus and that you would be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now listen to what he just said. I want you to be rooted and grounded, firmly established in the knowledge of the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. " He wants the truth of God's Word about His love to us in Jesus Christ — "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. " "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. " "He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things. " "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall life of death, shall powers of principalities, shall persecutions, nakedness, peril, and sword? No! In all these things we are more than conquerors. " He wants that kind of knowledge in them by the work of the Holy Spirit. And you can only get that kind of securing, assuring, maturing knowledge from the Word of God. If you're dull of hearing, it will never get in.

And what does that knowledge do? Look at Ephesians 3:19. It fills you up to all the fullness of God. What does that mean? At least it means this — it matures you; it matures you. Filling up with all the fullness of God means you begin to look like your heavenly Father. You begin to bear a moral, spiritual resemblance to your heavenly Father. People see you and they say, "She's a Christian, isn't she? She looks like her heavenly Father. He's a Christian, isn't he? He acts like a Christian. He acts like his heavenly Father would. " Just like people saw Jesus and Jesus could say, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. " That's what Christian maturity does. They look at you and they say, "So that's how a Christian acts. "

You see what he's shooting for? Knowledge of the love of God in Christ, which you must learn from the truth of the Word that matures you. That's the goal in Hebrews 5:11-6:3. Growth in the knowledge of truth and growth in godliness; that's what he's aiming for. And dullness of hearing prevents you from getting there. So I want to say this, and I want to say it especially to the students. And I want to say this because it was one of the sins of my own life. I so often was under faithful exposition of God's word and I was dull of hearing. I wasn't listening. And my friends, the sermon you may need most in your life may be the sermon you're sitting in and not listening to. You have no idea what you're going to face this week. You don't even know what you're going to face this afternoon. And the truth that you may receive in this service may be exactly the truth that you need. And by the way, it may not even come in the sermon. It may come in the Scripture reading; it may come in a hymn. As we were singing this morning — would you turn back to your hymnals to number 94? As we were singing this morning, "How Firm a Foundation. " You know we hit that line in the third stanza, "When through the deep waters I call you to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow. For I will be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress. " And as we sang that, not only was I blessed by that, but I began to wonder, "I wonder who's here this morning that needs to hear that word, that God promises to you, sister and brother in Christ, that He will sanctify to you the deepest distress that you ever experience in this life. " He will sanctify it to you! That, by the way, is part of the point of Hebrews 5:1-10. He did that with Jesus; He'll do that with you. But were you here to hear that? Or were you dull of hearing? Did it not get through?

When we design the worship service, not just the sermon but the whole worship service, we want the steak hanging off the side of the platter for you. The only question is, "Are you coming to eat?" To change the metaphor, everything that we intend to sing and to say in these services are designed to build you up in the knowledge of the truth of the grace of God in the Gospel, and to mature you in faith, to help you in holiness, to grow you in grace and godliness. Are you hearing it? Are you listening? Is it getting through? He's not saying things that he's saying here to discourage sincere Christians who are struggling with sin, because there are some people that are just checked out. So, are you checked out? Do you prepare to hear the Word? Do you come expectantly to hear the Word? Do you realize you need to hear the Word? Are you praying over the Word's application to your own heart in the context of the service, after the service? Or are you asleep at the wheel, just going through the motions and your heart and your mind are a million miles away? That's what he's getting at. You see, that's what he's getting at. May God, by His Spirit, wake us up and give us attention to the Word of God so that we're matured by it.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Help us not to be dull in our hearing of it, in Jesus' name, amen.

Now if you'd take number 576, we're going to sing, "Awake, My Soul, Stretch Every Nerve," a hymn based on the book of Hebrews.

Receive now God's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Falling Away? - Hebrews 6:4-12

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 6 as we continue our way through this letter. And as you know, this is one of the great warning passages of Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6 verses 4 to 8, and then again that passage in Hebrews 10:1, comprise two of the most terrifying warning passages in all the Scriptures. David Martyn Lloyd Jones, the famous preacher in London, England, said that he had seen over the course of thirty-five years ministry more Christians caused to struggle with their assurance because of misunderstanding this passage than perhaps any other passage in Scripture. He said, "It's not that this is the hardest passage in Scripture to interpret; it's not. There are other passages that are harder to interpret than this one. It's that this passage of Scripture has had a unique power when misunderstood to unsettle the hearts of believers. " It's a very difficult passage. Partly it's difficult because respected, Protestant interpreters have disagreed on how to interpret this passage. Our Wesleyan and Methodist friends interpret this passage very differently than we do. They see this passage as one passage that shows that believers can lose their salvation. That's part of historic Wesleyan teaching. That's something that those of us who are Calvinistic in our belief don't accept. We believe in the perseverance of the saints, that once you have been redeemed by Christ, you have trusted in Him for salvation, have been united to Him by the work of the Holy Spirit, nothing can snatch you away from Him. But this is one of those passages where our Wesleyan friends disagree with us.

This passage is a hard passage because it says some things that are hard to understand. And very frankly, it says some things that are hard to swallow. And it forces us to do the hard work of doing personal, spiritual inventory. You really can't study this passage with detachment. And to study it spiritually is rather draining because it requires you to do heart examination. But my friends, this is the Word of God and He means it for the good of our souls and it is for the good of our souls. And so we don't want either to downplay the warnings we find here, nor to ignore the encouragements that we find in this passage. And we must remember something that I've tried to repeat regularly as we've worked our way through the book of Hebrews this time — the author of Hebrews is not aiming to unsettle the assurance of true believers. He's not sitting in his study saying, "What could I say to make real Christians doubt their salvation?" That's not his goal at all. These warnings are real. They come in the context of people in this congregation that are considering turning their backs on Jesus, leaving the Christian church, and going back to Judaism. And the warnings are being given specifically into that situation. He's not dealing with sincere Christians who are struggling with sin; that's a different issue. He's dealing with the issue of renouncing our confession of Christ, whether actually or functionally. And the warning is simply this — to renounce Christ is to step across a line from which you may never return. And so I don't want true believers to be inappropriately discouraged by this passage, but I don't want any of us to muffle the warning that is given here because the language of verses 4 to 6 makes all of us take stock of our faith in Christ.

Now I'd like you to look at the outline of the passage before we read it this morning and even before we pray so that you can be on the lookout for two or three things. First, in verses 4 to 6, he gives a warning, and the warning is against falling away from faith in Christ. Then he gives an illustration. You see that illustration in verses 7 and 8. The illustration is of fruitfulness and fruitlessness. His point is simply this — you cannot have faith in Christ and not have fruit and you cannot be faithless towards Christ and have fruit. In other words, it always shows whether you're trusting in Christ. Trusting in Christ always has fruits and not trusting in Christ always has signs of fruitlessness.

And so verses 7 and 8 are an illustration of the principle. He's saying, "You can look at a person's life and you can see what really animates them. " It's like what Jesus meant when He said to the Pharisees and to His own disciples that, "out of a man's heart comes the issue of his speech and life. " In other words, Jesus is saying, "In the way you talk, in the way you live, you're showing people a public snapshot of your heart" - what you really care about, what you really believe in, what's most important to you, what you believe the rule of living is. Jesus' teaching is that our faith and our life go together. Our life is a witness to our faith. And the author of Hebrews is doing this, especially in this context, because the people who openly turn their backs on Jesus and leave are showing something that's going on in their heart.

And then finally, if you look in verses 9 to 12, he then turns to encouragement. And this word of encouragement is especially an encouragement for us to be diligent and to pursue assurance in Jesus. So we're warned against falling away from Jesus, an illustration of that is given — the warning is in verses 4 to 6, the illustration is in verses 7 to 8 — and then in verses 9 to 12 we have an encouragement. So be on the lookout for that as we read. Let's pray before we read God's Word.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and though it is a hard passage, and though it is one of those passages that searches us, we pray that we would come to it willingly and readily, waiting to be taught from the words of life. Open our eyes to understand our own hearts, to see our own sin, but especially to see our Savior and to cling by faith to Him. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in Hebrews 6 beginning in verse 4:

"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things — things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Your faith in Jesus is the gauge of your Christian life. That is surely one of the great issues of this passage. It's a complex passage in some ways; it's a very simple and basic passage in others. In both the warning and the encouragement, what the author of Hebrews is doing — don't get lost in the details — is he's pushing you back to the issue of faith in Jesus. That's the touchstone of the Christian life. The dividing line; that's the gauge. That's the measure. Faith in Jesus is at the very center of the Christian life. And he's asking this congregation to take stock in their faith in Jesus. Some of them are tempted to turn their backs on Jesus. That is surely an indication that there's a problem of the heart in terms of their faith in Jesus. They don't adequately know who He is, understand what His claims are, believe on His person, trust in Him for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel. And so that's where the warning comes. He's speaking to the hearts of people who are wavering. And the encouragement is similar. The encouragement is to go on, to be diligent in pursuing Jesus — keep on believing in Jesus, and as you keep on believing in Jesus, come to a fuller assurance of your hope that you will inherit all the promises of God. So your faith in Jesus is the gauge of your Christian life.

Let me elaborate on that statement. Your faith in Jesus, your continuing faith in Jesus, and the fruit that comes from that faith is the gauge of the Christian life. And it, in fact, is the key to your perseverance and your assurance. You can't have assurance of faith in Jesus without faith in Jesus. You can't have assurance of the promises of God to you without faith in Jesus. You can't persevere in the Christian life without faith in Jesus. And the author of Hebrews is speaking to a congregation, some of whom are tempted to stop believing in Jesus, to turn their backs on Him, to walk away from the church, to walk away from Christianity, to walk away from Jesus, and to go to something that somebody is telling them is better. And so he is giving a very stern warning.

THE WARNING AGAINST FALLING AWAY FROM FAITH IN CHRIST

And so I want to look with you this morning at two parts of the passage — the warning and the encouragement. The warning you'll find in verses 4 to 8 with the illustration of the warning in verses 7 and 8. So look especially at verses 4 to 6. In the warning, he is telling us of the danger of rejecting Jesus. The author of Hebrews does not want us to underestimate the danger to our souls of turning our backs on Jesus. And so this is what he's saying to us in verses 4 to 6 — "Don't turn your back on Jesus because there's no other hope of salvation. " What has he been arguing all the way up until this point in the letter? Really all the way up to chapter 5 verse 10 he's been saying, "Jesus is better. He's better than Moses, He's better than Aaron, He's better than the Old Testament sacrificial system. He is the best and only Savior that we could possibly have. " Now, in this warning section, what is he saying? "If that is who Jesus is and you turn your back on Him, what's the consequence?" And he says the consequence is curse; the consequence is burning, because if you turn your back on Jesus who is the better Savior, no sacrifice for your sin remains; no hope of your salvation remains. And so his warning here is for us not to turn our backs on Jesus because there's no other hope of salvation apart from Him.

Now let's look at the passage together because it's challenging. The author of Hebrews is warning against apostasy, against falling away from the truth. And we don't want to downplay that warning but we also don't want to misunderstand the warning. "It is impossible, in the case of those who have been once enlightened, who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit" — now that language is profoundly Christian language, isn't it? That whole part of the sentence has to do with the work of the Spirit in believers. It enlightened. Do you remember what Jesus says to Nicodemus? "You can't even see the kingdom of God unless the Holy Spirit opens your eyes. " So he says, for those who have been enlightened, for those who have tasted of the heavenly gift. " Again, this is a picture of God pouring out the gift of His Spirit; "and who have shared in the Holy Spirit. " It's profoundly Christian language. And then look at verse 5. "And have tasted of the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. " So he uses strong language, Christian language, to describe this congregation.

Is he saying that real Christians, inhabited by the regenerating Holy Spirit, can fall away? No. Let me argue for this in two ways. It is clear here that the fulcrum of this argument, the thing on which it turns, is found in the next verses. Look at verse 6. "Since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. " In other words, whatever qualities these people possess, they are turning their back on Jesus and thus they are, as it were, joining the mockers in the crowd who mocked Him and denied who He was. Do you remember what the Romans had put over Jesus' head? "The King of the Jews" and then they mocked Him. And he's saying, "If you reject Jesus, if you stop believing in Jesus, if you turn your back on Jesus, you have positioned yourself in the crowd mocking Jesus, holding Him in contempt.

And if you'll look at the parallel passage, turn over with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 10. It's interesting how he puts it there. Verse 26 — "If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. " And then look down to verse 29. "How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" It's clear that their attitude towards Jesus is the fundamental thing that the author of Hebrews is getting at. In other words, these people have come to a point where they think that they can have God but reject Jesus. "I can have God, I can have the blessings of God, but I can reject Jesus. " And the author of Hebrews says that place is the place of damnation. If you think that you can have God and reject Jesus, you are sitting in the seat of damnation. If you are confident of your communion with God and you have rejected Jesus, you are deceived and you will be judged. That's the warning that's being given here. It all turns on their attitude towards Jesus.

So does that mean at one time they were truly united to Jesus by the Holy Spirit and then they lost that union with Jesus? No. Again, let me turn you to a parallel passage to help us here. Turn with me to 1 John chapter 2 verse 19, because a very similar situation is happening in that church that John is writing to. He's speaking about anti-Christs — people who are teaching things in place of Christ — and he gives this word of warning. 1 John 2:19 — "They went out from us" — he's talking about people who have left the congregation because they've followed the teaching of these antiChrists, plural — "They went out from us but they were not of us, for if they had been of us they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. " Now that is a brilliant, short description of what has happened in that congregation. Some people have followed after the false teaching of the antiChrists and they have "gone out from us. " In other words, they have renounced their association with that Christian congregation.

But does John say, "And when they went out from us we discovered that though they once were of us, now they are no longer of us"? In other words, "Though they once were true believers, now they have lost that salvation. " That's not what John says. John says, "They went out from us, and thus we found out that they were never of us. " In other words, John is saying a true believer couldn't turn his back on Jesus. A true believer couldn't reject Jesus Christ. A true believer couldn't say, "I'm going to have communion with God and in fact I do have communion with God, and I reject Jesus. " You see, it all turns on Jesus. And this is not about true believers in Jesus ceasing to be believers in Jesus; this is about people who make a profession to be a believer and that profession turns out to be false. The language of Hebrews 6:4 and 5 is language that is designed to speak of the blessings that we have in the Christian community, but verse 6 indicates that it is possible to sit in the midst of the blessings of the Christian community and not really have faith in Christ.

That is so important for us to hear today. We sit under the faithful ministry of God's Word and we have in this congregation for 176 years. You know, I have been in so many wonderful evangelical churches where the Gospel is preached today but there was a time forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years ago when there were liberal preachers in those pulpits. I'm not sure I know a one where the entire preaching succession of the church's history has been faithful to the Word of God. You have been sitting under the faithful preaching of the Word of God for 176 years, First Presbyterian Church. What a huge blessing! You know it's possible to sit under the faithful preaching of the Word and not believe in Jesus, not put your trust in Him. It's not the fault of the preaching of the Word, it's not the fault of the deacons and the elders of the church and the women that are teaching Bible studies. It's a matter of the heart. Who do you trust? Where are you putting your faith? What do you really believe? The author of Hebrew is saying that these people that are turning their back on Jesus are showing that they never ever got it because you can't turn your back on Jesus and still have a sacrifice for sin that remains, he says in chapter 10. So this word of warning is very, very pertinent to us.

Maybe you've had friends like I've had who have said to me something like this. In the wake of a bad experience that they've had in the church — they've been burned somewhere in the local church. Somebody's betrayed them, somebody's let them down, they've had a horrible experience. Legitimately, they've had a horrible experience in their local church context but then they've said to me — it's chilling for me to even think of this — "I've tried Christianity, I've tried the church. I'm going on to something else. I'm still spiritual, I'm still religious, I still want God, but Christianity doesn't work for me anymore. " Have you ever had a friend say that to you? I have. That is exactly what the author of Hebrews is talking about here. You cannot walk away from Jesus and there not be eternal consequences. I'm not excusing the church. We can really mess things up, but that's not a reason to walk away from Jesus. Jesus is the one person you don't want to walk away from. And the author of Hebrews is simply pleading with these folks in the congregation. Again, think of it. He's not talking to the people that have already left, right? They're not there to be talked to. "I know you're used to preachers who preach to people that aren't here. You know, all the people who aren't here on Sunday and they really let them have it! Well they weren't here to hear you, preacher!" This is not that kind of a preacher. He's not shooting at the people who have already left; he's dealing with the people who are wavering in the congregation, who are wavering in their faith in Jesus. And he's saying, "Don't turn your back on Jesus. Don't walk away from Him. Keep believing in Jesus. " The whole of your faith turns on Jesus. Your relation to Him, your attitude towards Him, your belief in Him, your trust in Him — that's at the very heart of the Christian faith. Don't walk away from Jesus.

AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO BE DILIGENT AND PURSUE ASSURANCE IN JESUS

And it's clear that he doesn't want to undermine the assurance of true believers because of what he says in verses 9 to 12. Take a look at that. And that's the second thing that I want you to see today. Not only does he warn us about the danger of rejecting Jesus and tell us not to walk away from Jesus, but he also explains to us that God wants believers to experience the full assurance of hope in the Christian life. Look especially at verse 11. We desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end. Now there's this pastor just coming right out and saying, "I want everybody in this congregation to have a full assurance of hope. " So what he's just said is not meant to undermine the consciences of sinners who've been saved by the grace of God but are still sensitive to their sin.

I was reading a letter by John Newton, written to a friend of his in the year 1801. We sang a song by John Newton this morning, "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken. " Now John Newton, as many of you know, was a slave trader before he was converted and for a little while after he was converted. And if you've read the biography of John Newton, John Newton did some horrible things. When he wrote "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!" he was not being pious and super-spiritual. He meant every letter of that word. If you had tried to change in your hymnal that "saved a one like me" he would have written "wretch" right back in. He meant it. Read the biography of Newton sometime. Things that he did will stun you. Well here's a letter, almost fifty years after his conversion, after he's been in the Gospel ministry for thirty-five plus years, writing to a friend in 1801 — he's going to die in 1807 so it's six years before he dies. And he says this, "There have not been two hours in my waking life since the events of 1754 in Africa that I have not thought of what I did. " Isn't that interesting? John Newton, the author of the hymn, "Amazing Grace," the great evangelical preacher, in his waking experience, several times a day for the rest of his Christian experience, was mindful of the horrible things that he had done when he was in Africa.

The author of Hebrews isn't writing this so that the John Newtons of this world will be undermined in their assurance. He's writing this so that people who don't believe in Jesus will recognize the danger of not believing in Jesus and will not turn their backs on Jesus but would instead have faith in Jesus. But even for sensitive sinners struggling with sin, he wants them to have assurance as, by God's grace, John Newton had. John Newton did not have assurance of salvation because he was free from reasons for being condemned for sin, but because he trusted in a Savior who was condemned in his place. And he knew that and therefore he could have assurance. And the author of Hebrews is saying here, "I want you to have a full assurance of hope. " He says, "I'm convinced of better things concerning you. " So after this stern warning, he turns quickly and emphatically to a word of encouragement for the congregation. And you look at verse 10 and you see the outward fruits or evidences of their changed hearts. They labor for the Lord, they love one another, they serve one another. And he says, "These are all, to me, evidences of a heart that has been changed, of a heart that trusts in Jesus, and therefore I want you to have a full assurance for your hope. " This whole message, both the warning and the encouragement, my friends, turns on your faith in Jesus.

Do you have faith in Jesus? You know, it's always good to come to passages that push us back to very basic issues in the Christian life. This one is doing that today. Do you have faith in Jesus? Do you know what that means? To believe who He is and what He says and what He has done for you in your place. Do you believe that He is the Son of God and Savior of sinners? Do you believe that His words are the words of life? Do you believe that He died in your place, bearing your sin, so that you might not be condemned for that sin? Do you believe that there is no name under heaven whereby you could be saved except His name? Do you believe that He is the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by Him? Do you have faith in Jesus? If you do, there is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus. There are no worries that you have if you have faith in Jesus. But if you don't, you have every reason to worry, because apart from Him there is no forgiveness of sins. That's what the author of Hebrews is getting at here. He's saying, "Don't stop believing in Jesus! Don't turn your back on Jesus because He's your only hope of salvation. "

Hear that, Christian and non-Christian alike this morning. Christians, don't stop believing in Jesus. The culture around you isn't helping you believe in Jesus. It's toxic to orthodox faith and to Christian trust. It really is. The world is not helping us to continue to believe in Jesus. Keep on believing in Jesus. And non-Christian here this morning, if you will not trust in Him then you will stand before God in your own sins and there will be no one in this universe who will say, when you receive condemnation for your sin, that God has acted unjustly. Everyone in this universe will have to acknowledge, "Yes, that sinner received what he deserved. " But if you trust in Jesus, here's the amazing thing. Just like Billy read to us from Jeremiah 25, Jesus receives what you deserve and you receive what Jesus deserves. That's the line I want to be standing in on the last day. The only way I can stand in that line is to believe in Jesus. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, grant the questioning faith today. Clear doubt from their hearts and minds so that they see the Savior clearly and they trust in Him. Lord, break the skepticism of the agnostic. Cause them to see the dire situation in which they exist and will run to Jesus in faith. And for struggling believers, like John Newton, like me, like many others here today, grant us faith in Christ that we may see in Him, our justification. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now would you take your hymnals in hand and turn with me to number 305. It's important after we've studied a passage like this to be crystal clear about what the basis of our salvation is. And I don't know a better hymn than "Arise, My Soul, Arise!" to do that. Number 305.

Christian, receive from your God all that you need. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Promise + Oath = Hope - Hebrews 6:13-20

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd ask you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 6 as we continue our way through this book together We're going to be looking at verses 13 to 20 today If you remember, last week we were looking at Hebrews 6 verses 4 to 8, a chilling passage in which the author makes a very clear and powerful warning against turning our backs on Jesus, ceasing to trust in Jesus alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel, falling away from, deserting our original profession of faith in Christ But immediately, beginning in verses 9 to 12, he starts to encourage the larger congregation It's very clear that his desire is not to undermine the assurance of true believers, but in fact to warn those who are tempted to turn their backs on Jesus And so if you look at verses 9 to 12, one of the things that he immediately does is he says to the larger congregation, "I expect better things from ought I don't expect you to turn your backs on Jesus I don't expect you to apostatize from your profession of faith in Christ In fact, I see evidences of God's grace at work in your life. "- One of them that he mentions is the way that they love one another, the way they care for one another as a congregation He says that's an indication that God the Holy Spirit is at work with real grace in your life just the way that you care for one another, the way that you love one another And so he comforts that part of the congregation that might be unsettled by his warning by pointing to evidences of grace

But in the passage today, he's going to talk to us about what the very foundations of our assurance are His concern is for us not to locate assurance in ourselves or in our circumstances, but especially to locate it in what God says is its foundation And that's what he's going to address in this passage today So before we read God's Word, let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word We need it; we need every word that comes from Your mouth We don't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And we especially need this word and we need Your Holy Spirit to apply it in all of the different ways that each and every one of us here and in the hearing of this Word need this truth in our lives. So we ask that You would do this, in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in Hebrews chapter 6 beginning in verse 13:

"For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, 'Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promisee For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

God wants us to have assurance. God wants Christians to have a firm and certain assurance of our hope. God wants His children to know that they are safe and secure in His love. I think that's, by the way, one of the proofs of the inspiration of Scripture. How would merely humans, dozens of them, writing this book over a period of fifteen hundred years, from thirty-five hundred years ago to two thousand years ago, have known that my soul would need to be repeatedly assured of God's love and His purposes for me?. How would they have known that?. It's one of the testimonies that this book is inspired of God that He so often addresses the issue of assurance. He knows the weakness of our faith and He knows the difficulties of our lives, and both of those things are challenges to Christian assurance.

You know there are some people who are temperamentally inclined to and vulnerable to struggles with assurance. Some of the godliest people that I've ever known, people that know their Bibles, who can explain the Gospel as well as any evangelist, who trusts in Jesus Christ and whose lives bear all sorts of evidences of God's grace, I've met them, I've met them by the dozens, can struggle with assurance. And oftentimes I'm sitting there having a conversation with them and I'm thinking - this is the bubble above my head - "She's a better Christian than I am she she's struggling with her assurance?". There are some people that are temperamentally inclined to struggle with assurance and God knows that. And so He spends a lot of time in the Word giving us assurances of His love so that we are grounded in a firm and certain hope. He doesn't want us to wander in this world wondering, "He loves me. He loves me not. ". That's not how God wants us to live.

On the other hand, there are certain circumstances in our lives that can cause us to struggle with assurance. You know, we can find ourselves in situations where we say, "I didn't see that coming, Lord. I didn't know I was going to have to deal with that. Maybe the Lord doesn't love me because that happened. ". Or, sometimes it's, "Lord, I didn't know, I didn't know it was going to be like this. I didn't know the Christian life was going to be this way. I didn't know that I was going to struggle with chronic illness. I didn't know that I was going to bury a daughter and her children. I didn't know I was going to deal with marital infidelity. I didn't know I was going to have to rear children on my own. I didn't know that I was going to struggle with depression for year after year after year, and I've never gotten relief. I didn't know that vocation was going to be a problem for me for much of my life. I didn't know that my children would betray me. I didn't know that it was going to be so hard to care for my parents. It's been twenty years now that I've been caring for mom and she's hard to care for. ". And sometimes the sheer weariness of those experiences wear us down.

We actually sang about that in one of the hymns. Did you catch that in "O Quickly Come, Dread Judge of All"?. One of the reasons the author of that hymn says we pray, "Lord Jesus, come quickly," is because our souls are worn down sometimes with weariness. And it causes struggles with assurance. And God in His kindness, in His Fatherly pastoral care for us, spends a lot of time addressing this issue of the assurance of our hope precisely because He knows some of us inclined to struggles with assurance and others of us, we're just in very hard places in life. And if our assurance comes from our circumstances, it's not going to come at all. And if our assurance is based, is grounded, in us, it's not going to come at all. And so in this passage he's addressing precisely this issue because God wants us to have assurance. Those who trust in Christ, God wants you to be assured of His love and He wants you to be assured of your hope. How does that happen?. This passage tells you. And I'd like you to see three things with me in this passage this morning.

THE TWOFOLD GROUND OF HOPE

GOD SWORE AN OATH

First of all, look at verses 13 to 14. In this section, the author of Hebrews takes us way back to Genesis chapter 22. Now Genesis chapter 12 is where God makes His promise to Abraham and calls him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Genesis 15 is where He makes His covenant with Abraham. Genesis 17 is where He gives circumcision as a sign of that covenant. Genesis 22 is where He calls on Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, his beloved son, and take him to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. And these verses have that passage as their backdrop because he is going to quote from Genesis 22 verses 16 and 17 right in the middle of this passage in verse 14. He says, "For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, 'Surely I will bless you and multiply you. '". Now what he's doing is he's reminding you of the way that God assured Abraham. And he's saying, "Look at what God did in order to assure Abraham. He took an oath. He swore an oath to Abraham. ".

Think of that scene, my friends. Abraham has been waiting decades to have a son of his own. Ishmael was not that son; Ishmael was not born to Abraham and to Sarah. And God makes it clear in Genesis 17 that the promised seed that God had made to Abraham back in Genesis 12 is going to come from Sarah's body, even though she's nine decades into life. And so Isaac's finally been born. And how old is he?. I don't know - eight, nine?. Twelve, thirteen?. He's a young boy and God says, "Now Abraham, now that you've been waiting decades to finally have a boy who's going to be your heir, I want you to take him to a mountain in the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to Me. ". And when he gets to the top of that mountain, as he lifts the knife to plunge it into the body of his son, the angel of the Lord calls out and says, "Abraham, do not touch that boy!". And a ram caught in the thicket is substituted for Isaac and Isaac is spared. And in the very wake of that substitution of that provision of God, the angel of the Lord says again the words of God, "Abraham, I swear I will multiply you and bless ought. I promise. I take an oath. I swear My oath to you that I will fulfill the promises that I've made to you. ". And the author of Hebrews wants us to remember that and realize that the way that God assured Abraham was in the context of that miraculous deliverance, swearing an oath to him.

Now that's stunning, isn't it?. Because human beings swear oaths because we're untrustworthy. That's why we have to take oaths - because we lie!. And God doesn't lie. And yet because Abraham's faith is weak, God is willing to stand up on the witness stand and take an oath. So God stoops to swear an oath to Abraham in order that he can be assured of the promise. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is this - Christian, you understand that it's not just to Abraham that God has sworn an oath; it is to you. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are, the apostle Paul says, Galatians chapter 3, you are, the apostle Peter says, Acts chapter 2, you are, Luke says, Luke 22, Acts chapter 1, you are the heir of God's promise to Abraham. So that oath that God swore to Abraham, guess what, believer?. He swore it to you. God stooped to take an oath because He was so concerned that you would be able to believe His promise, that you would be assured of His love and of His purposes, that you would have a hope that could not be taken away from you in the midst of all the hard things that you face in your life. God swore an oath to you. And the author of Hebrews is reminding you of that event in Genesis 22 because God has sworn an oath to you. That's how much God wants you to have assurance. He's willing to take an oath.

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES

Now here's the second thing. Look at verses 16 to 18. Here, the author of Hebrews is going to tell you what the two-fold ground of your hope is. It's not in you, it's not in your circumstance; it's in something else. Look at what he says. "For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. ". Now humans swear oaths because humans lie. The reason that we put our hands on a Bible and hold our hand up in a courtroom and say, "I solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God," is we are acknowledging a higher accountability to tell the truth because we know our inclinations. And we when we think our hide is on the line, what are we tempted to do?. We're tempted to lie. And so we swear a higher accountability, "So help me, God. ". Why are there seals and official symbols in courtrooms - the seal of the city, the seal of the county, the seal of the state, the seal of the federal government?. Because it indicates a higher accountability. This isn't just some people together having a conversation. This is you, representatively, before that judge. And what does he represent?. He represents either the city or the county or the state or the nation. And the whole thing is designed to create a solemn environment in which you realize your obligation to tell the truth.

Well God doesn't have a problem with lying. So why is He taking an oath?. Not because His word is weak but because our faith is weak. God knows that we struggle with believing His promises and so He says, "Child, I know that it's hard for you to believe My Word so here's what I'm going to do:. In addition to My promise, I'm going to swear an oath to you. ". That's the two inviolable things that he's talking about in this passage. In other words, notice what God is dong. He's relocating your hope. He's relocating your hope from circumstances, from something in you, and He's relocating it to what?. To His promise and His oath. This is hugely important. You know, when we go through crisis moments in our lives, we often call out to God and we do put our trust in God and then things get better and what happens?. We start to get comfortable again and we start to put our hope in the comfortable circumstances in which we now find ourselves. And then trouble comes again and that hope disappears. And here's what God is dong. He's lifting up that hope out of the shifting sands of circumstance and He's plopping it right down in the middle of something that will not change. And the only thing that will not change is Him. It's His Word. It's His promise.

Look at what He did in Genesis. First He gave Abraham a promise, Genesis 12. Then He gave Abraham a covenant, Genesis 15. Then He gave Abraham a covenant sign, Genesis 17. Then He swore an oath to Abraham, Genesis 22. Over and over, what is God saying?. "Abraham, sure, you're a hundred and Sarah's ninety. You're still going to have children. Don't put a lot of hope in those circumstances. Put your hope in My promise, My oath, My covenant. ". He's relocating the hope of Abraham and that's exactly what the author of Hebrews is saying to you and me. If you want to have assurance of your hope, your hope has got to be in the Lord, it's got to be in His Word, it's got to be in His promise. The true ground of assurance is in God. It's in His promise, His covenant, His oath. And you need to ask yourself this morning, "Is that where my hope really is?". Crises come in the Christian life when people profess to be Christians but their hope is somewhere else other than the Lord. When their real hope is not in the Lord, that's when crises come in the Christian life. And the author of Hebrews is simply saying, "You want to have assurance?" - and God wants you to have assurance, believer. Your hope has got to be in the Lord and His promise and His oath.

And then you see in verses 19 and 20 the way he applies this particular truth. He tells you that Christian hope stabilizes the soul. "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. ". In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying, "If you understand that in order for you to be assured, God has condescended to swear an oath to you, and if you understand that your hope is not in you and it's not in your circumstances it's in Him and it's in His promise and in that oath that He swore, then you will have a hope that will hold. ".

I love this passage because it mixes metaphors - anchor and holy of hollies. What's behind that curtain that he talks about here?. That's the holy of hollies. What is that?. That's the place that represents the presence of God with His people. And he says, "When you dropped anchor, where did it end up?". You know if you drop anchor, you're thinking, "Okay, it's at least the lake. It's not the Gulf; it's not an ocean somewhere. That's normally where you drop anchor. ". But you drop this anchor and it ends up in the holy of holies!. And not just in the earthly holy of holies but in the heavenly holy of holies that Jesus has already passed into. In other words, he's saying, "If you put your trust in God's faith and promise, let me tell you where your anchor lands. It lands right in the presence of God. And Jesus has gone there before you and sooner or later He's going to pull you on in with Him because your hope is anchored in the very presence of God. And so it will hold no matter what. ". That's what the author of Hebrews saying. He's saying, "Your hope is based on the fact that God has made a promise to you. The same promise, if you're a believer, the same promise that He made to Abraham. And He has given His Son as the pledge for the fulfillment of that promise. And so you can be certain that your anchor will hold. ".

We'll sing it in just a few moments in verse 25 in song 521. "His oath His covenant His blood, support me in the overwhelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. ". That song, you're going to see, is built around this passage. Over and over, lines and thoughts and ideas out of Hebrews 6, come up in that great hymn, "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. ". But this, you'll find this throughout the hymnbook. That's one reason why you need to go to Boopie Beard and you need to buy a copy of the hymnbook for yourself and you need to take it home and you need to use it for your devotions and you need to memorize it. And when you're singing them, Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night, work on memorizing those hymns. Let me give you an example. Turn with me to number 670. Here's a hymn that is talking about this exact theme. Look at stanza 1 of "If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee. ". "If thou but suffer God to guide thee" - that's beautiful language and it just means this. When you are in a hard place, if you will just trust God to guide you and hope in Him through all your ways, "He will give you strength whatever betides you," whatever happens, "and bear you through the evil days. ". And then I love this concluding line of the first stanza. "To trust in God's unchanging love, builds on the rock that nothing can move. ". Your circumstances will move, your faith will ebb and flow, wax and wane. God's unchanging love will not. God's promise will not; God's oath will not. And then look at the last stanza. "Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving, so do thine own part faithfully, and trust His Word; though undeserving, you shall yet find it true for you. ". And then this line. "God never yet forsook at need, the soul that trusted Him indeed. ". You will find the ideas of Hebrews 6:13-20 scattered throughout your hymnal.

And the author is simply saying this. "Christian, are you temperamentally inclined to struggle with an assurance of your hope or is it just the condition of your life that's making it really hard right now for you to believe?. Either case, or both, if you will trust His oath, His covenant, and blood, you will find that they will support you in the overwhelming flood and you will find that they are a foundation that cannot be moved. ". God wants us to be assured, brothers and sisters. It's one of the things that gives us energy for the fight because we're in a fight; we're in a fight to the death. And many of us will die in that fight to the death, but Jesus lives and so shall we. And to have assurance of that enables you to face even death with hope. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Grant to all who trust in Jesus this kind of firm and certain and unshakable assurance of hope. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Turn with me to number 521 and let's sing, "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. "

And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God our Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen.

Jesus and Melchizedek - Hebrews 7:1-10

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 7. We're going to be looking at verses 1 to 10 this morning as we continue to make our way through this great letter. As you're turning there, make sure and allow your eyes to fall on the last two verses of chapter 6 as well, because there you will see the reasons why the author of Hebrews is going to go into an extended discussion of Melchizedek in this passage. We've said so far, as we've worked through Hebrews together, that the theme of this book is "Better" - Jesus is better. Hebrews 1:1 to Hebrews 4:13 emphasize that Jesus is a better Savior; He's better than Moses. Hebrews 4:14, all the way to the last verse of this chapter, Hebrews 7:28, will emphasize that Jesus is a better Priest. The author of Hebrews is arguing to his congregation and to you and me that Jesus is the Savior we need; He's the Priest we need. And He's a better Savior and He's a better Priest than we will find anywhere and everywhere else. And he has piled on Biblical arguments, and that's what he's going to do in this passage today.

If you were to look at Hebrews 4:14 you will see that Jesus is called there a "great high priest. "And throughout this section, from 4:14 to 7:28, various arguments are made to show that Jesus is a great High Priest. But back in chapter 5, verses 6 and 10, for the first time Jesus is connected with Melchizedek. But nothing is made of that. And several of you asked me last week, as we read to the end of chapter 6 and I didn't spend an extended time talking about Jesus being a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, "Are you going to skip that over?"No, I was holding that for this week because it's in this passage that the author will finally open up that connection. You know, Melchizedek is only mentioned two times in the Old Testament. He's mentioned in Genesis chapter 14 in the passage after Abraham has rescued his neighbor Lot from the marauding king of the Canaanites who has captured him and his family and has taken him off. And Abraham goes after him and recaptures him and brings him back. And when he does, this king, Melchizedek, the king of Salem, mysteriously appears and blesses Abraham. And then Abraham offers tithes to him. That's the one place where Melchizedek is mentioned in all of the Pentateuch, in all of the books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible.

But he is mentioned again one other time in the Old Testament, in Psalm 110 verse 4. It's that great psalm that begins, it's a psalm of David, and David says, "The Lord says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand. '"And so in that psalm, a psalm about a king-priest who is David's Lord, in Psalm 110 verse 4, the Lord says to that king-priest, "I have made you a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. "Now the person, Melchizedek, is mentioned eight other times in the Bible - only two times in the Old Testament, eight other times in the Bible. And guess where they are. They're all right here in the book of Hebrews. From Hebrews 5 to Hebrews 7, Melchizedek will be mentioned eight times. And we're right in the heart of the material that the author has to teach us about Melchizedek. Now why is he talking about Melchizedek, this rather obscure person from the Old Testament?Because he wants you to understand something about Jesus. The fundamental point here is not that we would come away knowing more about Melchizedek. The fundamental point is that we would come away being more in awe of Jesus and more trusting of Him. Now we need to know about Melchizedek in order that we can be built up in that way. But the fundamental point in this study is not that we would come away with our heads crammed with facts about this Old Testament figure, Melchizedek, but especially that we would know Jesus, we would understand who He is and the offices that He holds for us, and that we would trust in Him more and that we would be assured because of our trust in Him. So before we read this passage together, let's pray and ask for God's help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, all Scripture is given by inspiration and all Scripture is profitable, so we pray especially as we study a New Testament passage about a relatively obscure Old Testament figure, that by Your Spirit You would open our eyes to see Jesus and to understand what we are being taught about Jesus as we are being taught about Melchizedek. And then we pray, O God, that You would apply this truth to our hearts so that we would understand and believe and have hope and peace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it:

"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils!And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

You need to know how great a Savior your Savior is and you need to know how great a Priest your great High Priest is, because you've come here today with big problems and you have big sins, and you need to know that you have a Savior and a Priest who is big enough to deal with them. And that is ultimately why the author of Hebrews is writing these words. This is an argument that's going to continue all the way to chapter 10, and the purpose of the argument is to show the superiority of Jesus and thus the superiority of your hope, the superiority of your assurance of forgiveness of sins, the superiority of your assurance of salvation. All of this teaching about Melchizedek is designed to help you understand something about Jesus. And that something that you are to understand about Jesus is to strengthen your hope and assurance, to know that you have a Savior big enough to deal with your problems and a Priest who is able to deal with your sins. And so let's bear that in mind as we get ready to study this Old Testament figure from the misty, mysterious past.

It's introduced to us, isn't it, in verse 20, where the author of Hebrews says that Jesus has gone before us as a forerunner, "having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. "Now this will begin, in the verses that you have just read in chapter 7, a long discussion about Melchizedek. And I want you to see two or three things that are taught there because they focus us ultimately on Jesus as our Savior and Priest.

MELCHIZEDEK IS GREATER THAN ABRAHAM

The first thing that we see is that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham. In fact, in this passage by implication, it's going to be taught that he's greater than David. Melchizedek is greater than Abraham. And that's emphasized in two ways. Look at verses 1 and 2. When Melchizedek meets Abraham, what does he do?End of verse 1 - "he blessed him, and to him Abraham appointed a tenth part of everything. "Now understand the context. Lot has been captured by petty Canaanite kings, and he and his family and his possessions have been carted off into captivity and Abraham rallies three hundred or so of his men and off they go to get him. This is the stuff of an Indiana Jones adventure!This could be a great movie. And Abraham defeats Lot's captors and brings Lot and his family back. But when he comes back, he is met by this mysterious person, Melchizedek. The very name means, "king of righteousness," but he is identified as the king of Salem. That is, he is the king over the territory in which the city Jebus will one day rest. The Jebusites of course occupy the site which became the city of David, the city of Jerusalem. This king of Salem will come out, appear before Abraham, and he will bless Abraham!

Now that's huge, because in Genesis 12 verses 1 to 3, we are told that it was God who blessed Abraham and that He blessed Abraham so that Abraham would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. So when you have an encounter between this Canaanite, land-occupying king, Melchizedek, the king of righteousness, the king of Salem, and Abraham, you're expecting for Abraham to bless him because Abraham has received God's blessing and Abraham's job now is to be a blessing to the ends of the earth, but it's Melchizedek that blesses Abraham!And the author draws attention to it in verse 1. "He blessed him," and notice what he says in verse 7 - "it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. "So Melchizedek's blessing of Abraham shows that he is greater than Abraham. But not only that, Abraham's tithing to Melchizedek shows the greatness of Melchizedek. Look at verse 2 - "To him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. "And look at what the author of Hebrews says in verse 4 - "See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils!"So the fact that Abraham took a tenth of what he had gotten back from the Canaanites who had kidnapped his nephew Lot, the fact that he gave a tenth of that to Melchizedek shows the greatness of Melchizedek.

What's the point?The point is that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham. It's also the point, by the way in passing, that Melchizedek was the king of Jerusalem before David was. Why?Why is the author of Hebrews telling you that?Because of what he said in verse 20 of chapter 6. Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and if Melchizedek is greater than Abraham and David, then Jesus is greater than Abraham and David. That's the first part of his argument.

MELCHIZEDEK IS GREATER THAN LEVI

Now here's the second part. Not only is Melchizedek greater than Abraham, Melchizedek is greater than Levi. Levi is the clan of Israel from which all the priests come. No male in Israel that was not of the tribe of Levi, could be a priest. If you were of the tribe of Benjamin, you could not be a priest. If you were from the tribe of Judah, you could not be a priest. If you were from the tribe of Dan, you could not be a priest. You had to be from the line of Levi and Aaron and the Old Testament priesthood were all descended from Levi. And here, the author of Hebrews argues that Melchizedek was greater than Levi and therefore greater than the Old Testament priesthood. And how does he argue that?Well look at what he says in verse 3. "He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. "

Now he tells you two things that show the superiority of Melchizedek. One, he has no genealogy. No genealogy of Melchizedek is recorded in Genesis 14. We're not told where he came from or where he went to. We're told very little about him. But for priests, the genealogy was quite important. If you couldn't show in your genealogy that you were from the tribe of Levi, you couldn't be a priest. And think of how important that would have been in the days of the New Testament when Israel had been carried off into exile and genealogies and records would have been lost. It would have been very important for a person to be able to establish themselves as being in the line of Levi in order to be a priest. But Melchizedek had no genealogy. And furthermore, unlike the Old Testament priests who changed year after year because they lived and they served and they grew old and they wore out and they died, but he is a priest forever. So in those ways, he is superior to Levi.

And furthermore, look at what it says in verses 5 and 6. "Those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people. "In the Old Testament code, you brought tithes to the priests. Some of that money was used to operate the worship of Israel. Some of that money was used for the upkeep of the house of God. Some of that money was used to support the priests and their families. Kind of just like what we do today in the Christian church through the giving of God's people. Well, that was written down in the law that the Levites were to take tithes; they were to receive tithes from the people. But we're told in verse 6, "this man who does not have his descent from Levi received tithes from Abraham. "And so again, his superiority is signified. Notice what we're told in verses 9 and 10. "One might even say that Levi himself, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. "

Now all of these things are designed to show that Melchizedek is greater than Levi and greater than the Old Testament priesthood. Now what is that meant to show?Well, it's meant to show that Jesus is greater than Levi and greater than the Old Testament priesthood because He is a priest not according to Aaron, not according to Levi, but according to Melchizedek - Hebrews chapter 6 verse 20 and again, Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6, and Hebrews chapter 5 verse 10. Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The whole argument is this - Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, Melchizedek is greater than Levi; Jesus' priesthood is according to the order of Melchizedek and therefore is greater than the priesthood of Levi and Aaron and the Old Testament priesthood. So there's the simple argument that's going on. But there's more to it than that. There's more to it than that.

MELCHIZEDEK IS LIKE JESUS

In the final analysis, Hebrews 7 verses 1 to 10 does not argue that Jesus is like Melchizedek. It argues that Melchizedek is like Jesus. The argument isn't that Jesus is like Melchizedek; the argument is that Melchizedek is like Jesus. Look at verse 3 again. "He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God. "Now that's a statement about Melchizedek. And the statement is that Melchizedek is like Jesus. It's not that Jesus is like Melchizedek; it's that Melchizedek is like Jesus. Now this is mind blowing. I want you to think about it for a minute. The author of Hebrews is saying that Jesus is not like this figure who existed hundreds and hundreds of years before he came into this world, but Melchizedek is like Jesus who existed eons before Melchizedek existed. It's not simply, you see, that Jesus is the fulfillment of an Old Testament foreshadowing; it's the Melchizedek is the shadowing of someone who existed long before he existed. By the way, this is one reason why some of the older interpreters go back to Genesis 14 and they see it either as a Christophany or a theophany, some sort of a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ there in Melchizedek. But the point is that Melchizedek is a type and the type always has the reality existing before the type comes into the world. The type is there because the reality already exists.

The author of Hebrews is pressing on us two massive truths about Jesus - He is eternal and therefore His priesthood is eternal. And He as God has the power of blessing us. What's the argument here?Melchizedek is greater than Abraham; Melchizedek is greater than Levi. Jesus' priesthood is according to Melchizedek; therefore He is greater than Abraham and Levi. And here's the take-home for us. That means that because Jesus is greater than Levi and the Aaronic priesthood, because Jesus is the real great High Priest, because Melchizedek is like him - it's not that Jesus is like Melchizedek but it's that Melchizedek is like Him - because of that we can know two things about Jesus. First, He is eternal, and second, He is able to bless. Now look at how the author of Hebrews emphasizes that.

Look at the first point. Look at verse 3 again. "He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. "Now what does he tell you there?He is like the Son of God in having neither beginning of days nor end of life. The emphasis there is that Jesus is eternal. And whatever that means, that Melchizedek resembles the Son of God in having neither beginning of days nor end of life, it emphasizes this - Jesus is an eternal priest. In fact, that's explicitly said. "He continues a priest forever. "Now why is that so important?This congregation that the author of Hebrews is writing to, some of them are tempted to go back to Judaism and somebody has made this argument to them. "If you will come back to Judaism, you won't lose anything from your heritage. If you come back to Judaism you won't lose anything from your heritage like you're having to give up being a Christian. And you won't lose anything religiously because you come back and you've got a high priest and you've got a promised Messiah. You won't lose anything. "And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Oh no, oh no. That Old Testament priesthood was a faint foreshadowing of the real Priest. In fact, that Old Testament priesthood was inferior to Melchizedek's priesthood and Melchizedek's priesthood was just a picture of the eternal priesthood of Jesus. "Jesus is the priest that you need. He doesn't wear out. He doesn't tire. He doesn't falter. He doesn't fail. If you have sin, He ever lives to intercede. If you have sin, He died once for all so that your conscience is clean. Those Old Testament sacrifices had to be offered year after year. Jesus, once died, and then He ever lives to intercede for those who trust in Him. Jesus is the Priest that you need. Jesus' priesthood is eternal and perpetual. It never goes away; it never wears out.

One of my favorite scenes in the New Testament is the scene of Stephen dying in Acts chapter 7. And when he lifts his eyes up to heaven he sees Jesus standing. Now it's the only place we see Jesus standing in the New Testament. Every time we see Jesus at the right hand in the New Testament how is He postured?He's sitting. Why?Because that's the picture of reigning. When you're sitting on a throne you're reigning. Why would Stephen as he died, why would he have looked up and seen Jesus standing?Because if you look in the Old Testament, standing is the posture of prayer!When Moses is praying for the children of Israel in battle, he's standing with his hands outstretched!That's why I stand with my hands outstretched during the invocation. That's the posture of prayer. And what's Stephen seeing?Jesus is at the Father's right hand interceding for him right at the moment of his need. And that's the great High Priest who you have if you trust in Jesus Christ. He ever lives to intercede.

And it's not only that He's eternal and that His priesthood is perpetual, it is that Jesus is the one who blesses the one with the promises. Now get this - in Genesis 12:1-3 it's God who blesses Abraham. In Genesis 14, Melchizedek blesses Abraham. What is going on there?God is the one who blesses. God is the one who can give you true blessedness. The author of Hebrews is telling you that it is through Jesus that Abraham was blessed. It is Jesus who is the one who blesses. Notice that it's emphasized here, twice - verse 1, "Melchizedek blessed Abraham;" verse 6 - "Melchizedek blessed him who had the promises. "Why is this emphasized?Because the author of Hebrews is emphasizing that it is Jesus who is the one who is able to bestow all of the blessings of the promises of God. If you turn your back on Jesus, you're turning your back on the one person who can bestow the promises of God on you.

You know there's that passage in John 8 verses 56, 57, 58 where Jesus is having a conversation with a Jewish leader and He says these provocative words - "Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. "And the Jewish leaders are furious!"What are You saying, Jesus!You're not even fifty years old yet and You're saying that Abraham rejoiced to see Your day!How could that possibly be?"And you remember what Jesus said?"Before Abraham was, I am. "And they knew exactly what Jesus was saying. They sought to stone Him because they knew He was claiming to be God. The author of Hebrews is saying to his Jewish-Christian congregation, "Do you know who it was who blessed Father Abraham?It was Jesus. Do you know where you can get the blessings of God's promise?Only Jesus. If you turn your back on Jesus, can you receive the blessings of God?No, you cannot, because they are bestowed by Jesus, and Melchizedek is just a picture of that. "

My friends, in your struggles with your problems and in your fight against sin, the Priest that you need is the One who is eternal and perpetual. And when He blesses, no one, no one can take that blessing away. You see, that's why the author of Hebrews is telling us these things about Melchizedek because he wants us to know that we have a great High Priest.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, help us to trust in Jesus and to fully understand who He is. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now we've got the joy of singing these very truths back to God. If you'll turn with me in your hymnals to number 306, we're going to sing the wonderful Isaac Watts hymn, "Jesus, Our Great High Priest. "

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Guarantee of a Better Covenant - Hebrews 7:11-28

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 7 as we continue to work our way through this book together. I'd remind you, we're going to be looking at verses 11 to 28 today, but I'd remind you where we've been. In Hebrews chapter 6, the author of Hebrews is desirous of explaining to Christians where we find the basis of our perseverance, our assurance, and our hope. That is, what enables us to keep on keeping on in the Christian life?What enables us to experience a sense of security, the security of God's love, the security of the salvation that He has given us?And what is it that gives up hope in the midst of the trials of this world and the struggles within our own hearts?And over and over again, he points us to the covenant and to the promise of God in Hebrews chapter 6.

And then in the very last verse of Hebrews chapter 6, he mentions Melchizedek, this mysterious figure whom Abraham had an encounter with in Genesis chapter 14. And when I preached on that passage in Hebrews chapter 6 and didn't say a lot about Melchizedek, a number of you met me at the door of the church and said, "Are you going to say anything more about Melchizedek?" and I said, "Yes, I am!" because the first ten verses of chapter 7 explain what the author has been hinting at about Jesus being a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And that's what we studied last time together. When we looked at Hebrews chapter 7 verses 1 to 10, we learned the significance of Jesus being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. In Hebrews chapter 5 verses 6 and 10, the author of Hebrews had mentioned this Melchizedek theme. He raised it again at the end of Hebrews chapter 7, but then when you get into Hebrews chapter 7, he really camps on that theme and he begins to unfold it and explain it. And that's what we did last week when we were together.

And we saw at least three important things. We saw the reason why it was absolutely necessary that Jesus be a priest not according to Levi and Aaron but according to Melchizedek. We saw that understanding Jesus as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek explains why He is a superior High Priest, why He can be called the great High Priest. And we saw that those unique qualities of His priesthood are absolutely essential to us in the Christian life. So today we're going to continue looking at this theme of the superiority of Jesus Christ as a great High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And as we look at Hebrews 7 verses 11 to 28, I want you to be on the lookout for three things that is says about Old Testament priests and two things that is says about Jesus. So as we work through the passage together I'll highlight those things to you, but be on the lookout for them even as we read the passage together. Let's pray before we read God's Word.

Lord, You inspired this Word by Your Holy Spirit and we need the Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts and minds to understand it. So open our eyes, Lord, to behold wonderful things in Your Word, and apply those truths to our hearts by Your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in Hebrews 7 beginning in verse 11:

"Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him,

'You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. '

For on one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:

'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever.

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

This whole passage is about how a person draws near to God. And the author of Hebrews is saying you must understand why it is absolutely essential that Jesus was a priest according to the order of Melchizedek if you are going to understand why it is absolutely essential that you draw near to God in Jesus Christ only, and that when you draw near to God in Jesus Christ only, you have no fear of rejection. You have hope for perseverance, you have reason for assurance, and you have a solid ground for all your hope in the Christian life. So I want you to see three things that the author of Hebrews says about the Old Testament priesthood and then two things that he says as a consequence, as a deduction, about Jesus, as we work our way through this passage and as we think about what it means to draw near to God.

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION IS NOT BASED

ON THE OLD TESTAMENT PRIESTHOOD

Now the first thing you'll see in verse 11. The very first thing that the author of Hebrews teaches us here is that our perseverance, our continuing in the Christian life, our assurance, our security about the love of God in His salvation, our hope and our sanctification, is not secured through the Old Testament priesthood. Look at the words that he says. "Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek?"You see what he's saying?He's saying that the Old Testament priesthood and the Old Testament ceremonial law and the Old Testament ritual order, could not give you the grace of perseverance and assurance and hope and sanctification. It could not, in and of itself, cause you to draw near to God. The author of Hebrews is saying that that whole Old Testament order was unable to bring about the reality that it symbolized. This is stunning. When he says that perfection was not attainable through the Levitical priesthood, you can imagine how Hebrew hearers would have heard what he was saying. This is a very strong word that he's saying. He's saying that not one sin was forgiven by the sacrifices of the Old Testament priesthood, not one. That not one conscience was cleansed by the sacrifices of the Old Testament priesthood, not one. That not one believer was enabled to assurance by the Old Testament priesthood. That in and of itself, the Old Testament priesthood was not the culmination of the promise of God's plan and had inherent limitations.

In other words, the author of Hebrews is preparing to argue that the goal of God's grace work in believers is realized only in Jesus. Now he's going to argue this all the way to chapter 10. And at one point in chapter 10 you remember what he's going to say?He's going to say the blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sin. So this argument begins here but it continues to build for the next three chapters. His point is if you're going to have assurance, if you're going to draw near to God, how are you going to do it?Not through the Levitical priesthood; only through Jesus. What did David quote before the baptismal service?"What can wash away my sin?"The blood of bulls and goats of the Old Testament Levitical priesthood?No. "What can wash away my sins?Nothing but the blood of Jesus. "

JESUS' PRIESTHOOD IS NOT BASED ON THE OLD TESTAMENT PRIESTHOOD

Second, look at verses 12 to 17. Here, the author of Hebrews goes on to say while the Old Testament priesthood points to Jesus, Jesus' priesthood is not based on the Old Testament priesthood; it's not based on the ceremonial law of Moses. It's not based on Jesus being physically descended from the tribe of Levi. If you were an Old Testament priest, you were not from the tribe of Judah; you were from the tribe of Levi. And if you weren't from the tribe of Levi, you couldn't be an Old Testament priest. Now Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. You remember what John calls Him in the book of Revelation?The Lion of the tribe of Judah. The author of Hebrews is saying Jesus is a priest but He's not a priest based on the Old Testament priesthood. Look at what he says in verse 12. "For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. "And this priesthood is not based, look at verse 16, on the "legal requirement concerning bodily descent. "In other words, the priesthood that Jesus receives is not based on His being descended from Levi; it's based on something else.

And what does he say?It's based on two things - the power of an indestructible life and the oath of God. So listen to what the author of Hebrews is saying. He's saying that while the Old Testament priesthood points to Jesus, by all of those sacrifices and all of that ritual points to Jesus, Jesus' priesthood is not based on being descended from Levi and it's not based on the laws that Moses gave for priests in the Old Testament. It's based on the fact that Jesus lives forever and that God has sworn an oath to make Him a priest forever. This is where the author of Hebrews quotes in verse 17 from Psalm 110 verse 4, the words that were spoken to David's Lord. You remember how that psalm begins?"The LORD said to my Lord" - this is David the king talking about the LORD - who's that?That's Yahweh, that's the God of Israel - "said to my Lord. "Now wait a second. God said to David's Lord?Who's David's Lord?You remember Jesus asked this question at one point in His ministry. Who's David's Lord?And Jesus' answer is, "I'm David's Lord. I'm the Messiah. The Messiah is David's Lord. "And the Messiah was promised in Psalm 110, not only that He would reign but what else?That He would be, verse 4, "a priest forever. "And the author of Hebrews is saying that's the thing that's established the priesthood of Jesus. He lives forever and God swore Him an oath that He would be a priest forever. So Jesus' priesthood is not based on the law of Moses, it's not based on Levitical descent; it's based on the indestructibility of His life and the oath that God has sworn to Him.

THE LEVITICAL CODE IN ITSELF CANNOT BRING SOMEONE NEAR TO GOD

Third, look at verses 18 to 22. The third thing that the author of Hebrews teaches us about the Old Testament priesthood is this. The Levitical code is merely considered in itself utterly useless for bringing someone near to God. Listen again to the words of verses 18 and following. "For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect). "Now those are very strong words. Can you imagine how offensive those would have been to Hebrew ears?The law is weak and useless, in and of itself, for bringing someone near to God. In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying the Old Testament ritual system brought absolutely no one near to God.

And look what he goes on to say. "On the other hand," verse 19, "a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. "And who do we draw near to God through?Verse 22 - "Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant," verse 25, "is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him. "This is stunning. The author of Hebrews is saying Abraham did not draw near to God through sacrifices of animals; he drew near to God through Jesus. Moses did not draw near to God through sacrifices of animals; he drew near to God through Jesus. And today, the only way that you can draw near to God is through Jesus. He is the only efficacious priest. He is the priest that God made an oath to in Psalm 110, after the law had been given, that He would be a priest forever, and He is the only priest who's activities on behalf of believers is utterly and unfailingly and everlastingly efficacious. His sacrifice for us prevails. His redeeming work for us forgives. His intercession on our behalf enables us to persevere, enables us to have assurance, enables us to have hope, enables us to grow in grace. So he's showing how the Old Testament priesthood could not do any of these things and how all of these things happen only in Jesus.

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION IS BASED ON JESUS' PERMANENT PRIESTHOOD

And then he wants to tell you two things about Jesus. Look with me very briefly in verses 23 to 26. Here's the first one. The first thing he wants you to see is your security, your security is based on the permanency of Jesus' priesthood. Notice verse 23. The former priests were prevented by continuing in their ministry - why?Because they died!You know, preachers die. Preachers die and you cart them out and you bury them and you bring another one in and you go on. Sean Lucas and I were talking yesterday about how we often look at the pictures of our predecessors on the walls at the church and say, "You know what?One day our picture is going to be up there and First Pres. is going to keep on rocking right along. And we're going to be six feet under and somebody else is going to be in that pulpit preaching the Word of God and preaching the Gospel. Praise the Lord!"But priests were like that too. They served the Lord, they got buried, they plopped the next one in place, and they went on. But Jesus is not like that. His priesthood never comes to an end; it goes on forever. And your security is based on the permanency of that priesthood.

And just think about that, my friends. This is so important. Why?Because the problem with sin doesn't end at the beginning of the Christian life, does it?You know, we rejoice when we finally realize we're sinners, finally realize that we need God's grace, we trust on Him for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel, and we feel the bondage of sin and the guilt of sin, we feel the enormous pleasure of forgiveness and acceptance of God, and then we never have to worry about sin again, right?No!We fight against sin every day and we will until the day we die. We need a priest who will be around through that process. A friend of mine, a number of years ago, was going through very difficult marital troubles. And she and her husband saw a godly Christian counselor for a number of years who was a real help in their lives and he was killed tragically in an accident. And she said to another friend after that happened, "You know, when Bill died, things died with him that nobody else knows in this world about me or about what my husband and I have gone through. When he died, knowledge about my heart and my struggles died that nobody else in this world knows. "Well that's how it would have been with an Old Testament priest. You might have borne your soul to a godly, faithful, Biblical priest and then one day he dies and all the things that you shared with him - he may have ministered to you in a very significant way - all of the things that you shared with him are in the grave with him.

Not with Jesus. When you bear your soul to Jesus, He is a priest who will always know what you've gone through and He will always be there for you. He is a permanent priest. I want you to think of this, my friends. Even in glory, when you have forgotten, Jesus will remember what you have gone through in this world. He is a priest forever. He is the priest that you need. His priesthood never wears out. It never ends. It goes on forever. He is a permanent priest. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Don't you understand that your security is absolutely dependent upon having a permanent priest?"

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION IS BASED ON THE PERFECTION OF JESUS' PERSON

The second thing he says - look at this in verses 26 to 28. He says that your security is not only based on the permanency of Jesus' priesthood, it's based on the perfection of Jesus' person. "It was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. "You remember how it worked?The Old Testament priests, before they could offer sacrifices for you, had to offer sacrifices for themselves because they were sinners. Yes, they were appointed by God, yes, they were to represent you to God, yes, they were to offer the sacrifices, but they were sinners and so they had to offer sacrifices for themselves. Jesus did not; He was perfect!And not only that, how often do they have to offer those sacrifices?Not only yearly, but daily!Thousands upon thousands of sacrifices from 1444 BC all the way to Jesus' time, daily offered - why?Because the blood of bulls and goats cannot cleanse the conscience.

And yet what is said about Jesus' sacrifice?Look at verse 27. "He did this once for all when he offered up himself. "You see what the author of Hebrews is saying?He's saying that none of those sacrifices forgave a single sin and that Jesus, in one sacrifice, forgave every sin of everyone who draws near to God through Him. Once for all. So your security rests not only on Jesus being a permanent priest, but also on Jesus being a perfect person. And this is why the author of Hebrews wants you to understand about this obscure Old Testament figure, Melchizedek, because he wants you to understand that Jesus' priesthood was a better priesthood than the priesthood which the laws of Moses established. He is a priest forever and He ever lives to intercede. If you are trusting in Him, you may be certain that you will draw near to God in Him and through Him. The whole point is - What can wash away your sin?Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Or, as David Strain told us on Wednesday night in his sermon - The title deed of every spiritual blessing you will find on it your name inscribed by the nail-pierced hands and purchased for you by the blood of the Redeemer. Nothing in our hands we bring; simply to His cross we cling. Everything that we need to draw near to God is found in Jesus. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the multiple reminders of the Gospel that we have had throughout this service, and especially in this passage, and it is my prayer right now, Lord, if there are friends that are in this room today who have not put all of their hope on Jesus, it's my prayer that right now, by the work of the Holy Spirit, you would bring them to faith in Jesus and that they would never ever stop trusting Him. And for those who are struggling with sin today and they're discouraged in their struggle against sin, I pray that You would remind them that in Jesus they have a priest who will never quit and He will bring them near to God. And I pray these prayers in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now let's continue to sing about this very theme, taking our hymnals in hand and turning to number 305, "Arise, My Soul, Arise!"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Mediator of a Better Covenant - Hebrews 8:1-13

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8. We're beginning a new section of the book of Hebrews together, but I want to remind you where we've been already. In Hebrews 6:20, the author has reminded us again - he mentioned it twice in chapter 5 but it's in Hebrews chapter 6 verse 20 - he picks up on the theme of Jesus as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And he continues and expands on that theme all chapter 7 long. And he wants to press home several things. First of all, he wants us to understand the fact that Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, as opposed to Levi. All the Old Testament priests established from the time of Aaron and Moses on, were priests according to the order of Levi. They were descendants of Levi. You couldn't be a priest in the Old Testament in Israel if you weren't descended from Levi. The very fact that Jesus, who by the way was descended from the tribe of Judah - you remember John will call him, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah" in the book of Revelation - the fact that Jesus was not descended from the tribe of Levi but His priesthood was according to the order of Melchizedek, the author of Hebrew says shows that there was an imperfection in the Levitical priesthood that could only be addressed in the person and priesthood of Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, it was pointed out that Levitical priests lived and ministered and then did what? They died, just like all of us. But Jesus' priesthood is a priesthood that is forever because He is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek with a power of an indestructible life. And it is pointed out in chapter 7 that Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek because an oath has been taken by God to Him. It's quoted from Psalm 110. "This day I have sworn, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. " And so Jesus' priesthood is superior that way. And His priesthood is superior because He is without sin. Levitical priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins before they offered sacrifices for the people's sins but Jesus did not because He is perfect. In all of these ways, Hebrews 7 emphasizes that Jesus' priesthood is better than the Old Testament priesthood descended from Levi.

Now in this passage, that truth is going to be applied. And there are two things that I want you to be on the lookout for. If you look at Hebrews 8 verses 1 to 5 it is going to be emphasized and applied that Jesus is a better priest. You remember the whole sermon series on Hebrews we're just calling, Better. Why? Because the argument of Hebrews is, "Jesus is better. " He's the better revelation of God, He's better than Moses, He's better than Joshua, He's better than Aaron, He's better than any of the other high priests. Over and over, the point that Jesus is better is stressed and we're going to see that in this passage. In Hebrews 8 verses 1 to 5 it will be emphasized that Jesus is a better priest. There's no priest in the Old Testament who is as good as Jesus. Then if you look at verses 6 to 13, there will be an emphasis that Jesus is a mediator of a better covenant. So verses 1 to 5 - better priest. Verses 6 to 13 - better covenant. Be on the lookout for that. Let's pray before we read God's Word.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. Open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it, in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 8 verse 1:

"Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the eternal things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, 'See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. ' But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

For he finds fault with them when he says:

'Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. '

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. "

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The Vanity of Finding Hope in our Circumstances

Where do you turn when you are looking for hope but find yourself in the midst of despair? Where do you turn when you're looking for encouragement but you find yourself underneath discouragement? Do you look to better circumstances? "Things will get better. " Hebrews says to the Christian, "No, that's not where you look for hope. You don't look for hope to your circumstances; you don't look for hope to your circumstances changing. You don't look to your circumstances at all for your hope. You look somewhere else. Your hope is found somewhere else. " This passage of the book of Hebrews is about where you look for that hope. A very famous preacher recently wrote a book on preaching in which he counseled all preachers on how they ought to preach. This reminded me of something that David Strain brought to my attention this last week, a quote by the famous Scottish preacher called, James S. Stewart, who warns ministers against preachers who write books with titles like, How to Preach by One Who Knows. And he says, "When you find a book like that, run, because the creature is an imposter!" But in this book, it's sort of a How to Preach by One Who Knows, he warns, he says, "All you preachers out there, you care about truth and theology. " And he said, "I've got some bad news for you. People don't care about truth and theology; they care about happiness. So if you preach about truth and theology, you're going to have a tiny little church filled with people that care about truth and theology and I'm going to pastor a really large church because I understand that people aren't looking for truth and theology; they're looking for happiness. " It's a very condescending sort of thing to say, isn't it?

And it reminded me of something that another preacher once said. I think it goes like this. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. " You remember the name of that preacher? His name was Jesus. And Martin Luther, commenting on Jesus' words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you," says this. "It is due to the perversity of men that they seek peace first and only then righteousness, and consequently they find no peace. " Do you hear what Luther is saying? If you seek happiness first, apart from the truth of God's Word about Jesus, you'll never find happiness. That's why preachers that preach "How to be happy without Jesus" will never ever teach you the way of true happiness and blessedness in this life. Jesus wanted you to be blessed, to be truly and deeply and eternally happy, but you have to believe the truth in order to be truly, eternally, and deeply happy. That's how the Sermon on the Mount begins, and that in a real sense is what the author of Hebrews is doing here. He's telling you where you find hope. He's telling you where you find the basis of the life of true blessedness and joy. And guess where he points? He points directly to Jesus.

Finding Hope in Jesus, A Better Priest

And in this passage I'd like you to see two things that he tells you about where you find your hope. You find your hope in a better priest and you find your hope in a better covenant. Look at verses 1 to 5. Here, the author of Hebrews says, "You want hope? You want hope that won't ever be pulled out from under your feet? Don't look to your circumstances. Look to the better priest. Look to the superior priest. Look at the superiority of Jesus in the nature and place of His ministry. He's the true priest in the true sanctuary. " In other words, the author of Hebrews is going to argue that Jesus is better because of who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing. And therefore, you ought to look to Him for your hope, not to your circumstances, not anywhere else, but right at Jesus.

Listen to what he says. In the very first verse he draws a conclusion from everything he's taught in Hebrews chapter 6:20 through Hebrews chapter 7. He says this, "Now the point in what we are saying is this." Don't you love it when inspired authors of Scripture say, "Now by the way, if you missed the whole point of what I just said in chapter 7, let me just tell it to you again"? Thank you! I need those kinds of cliff notes! Here they are. What does he say? "We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up." In other words, he's saying, "Here's the point. All those things that I was telling you about Jesus and Melchizedek, they were designed to teach you this one point - Jesus is not only better than the Old Testament priesthood that descended from Levi and Aaron; He is the only true priest. They were simply copies of Him."

Now he says that. He comes right out and says that. Look at what he says. Verse 5 - "They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things." That is mind-boggling, my friends. It's typical for us to think of Old Testament as prophecy and New Testament as fulfillment, and that's a very helpful way of understanding much of the dynamics between the Old Testament - promises made…New Testament - promises kept; Old Testament - prophecies, promises, types, shadows…New Testament - fulfillment, reality. But here's the amazing thing. The author of Hebrews is saying that Old Testament priesthood was a copy of Jesus. It was merely a copy of Jesus. Now that's mind-boggling. It was a copy of Jesus. When you saw the Levitical priesthood, it was merely a copy of the one, true, real priesthood of Jesus.

One of our RUF campus ministers is serving in the armed forces in Afghanistan - Seth Still, the campus minister at Delta State. And [his wife] Julie and his children are here in Cleveland, Mississippi, still living in their home, and you can imagine how hard that is. I hope many of you who know Seth are praying for Seth and Julie and the family while he's away for seven months on this tour of duty. One of the ways that they keep in touch with one another is they Skype. It's amazing, isn't it, that half way around the world, from time to time, he can open up a laptop or look at an iPad and actually see Julie and the children and talk to them. He can actually see them. And they can see him, he can see them, and they can talk. That's wonderful, but it's not quite the same thing as being with them, is it? He's seeing a copy. He's seeing a picture. Do you think Seth would prefer to be in Cleveland with his arms around Julie and the children? Oh yes. Yes, in fact, he told me so. I was talking to him and I said, "Seth, what are you worried about the most?" And I was expecting, "Getting shot at," you know, "Getting blown up by an IED." No, here's what he said. He said, "I'm going to miss Julie." While he looks at her on that copy, on that iPad or that laptop, there's something better than that. There's the real Julie. And get this, for him to see the copy of Julie and the children they have to exist somewhere else. You can't copy what doesn't exist.

And the author of Hebrews is telling you that the Old Testament priesthood, all it was, was a copy of the true priesthood of Jesus. And the real priesthood is better, just as the real Julie is better than that picture on the screen that Seth looks at. And the children are better than the picture of the children, the image of the children on that screen. The author of saying, "Don't look to the copy for your hope. Don't look to the Old Testament priestly ritual for your hope. Look to Jesus." And that's a message for all of us. In our discouragements, in our trials, don't look to anything else but Jesus. Don't look to a copy of Jesus; look to Jesus. Look to Him for your hope. You've got a better priest. He's the real thing.

Finding Hope in Jesus, The Mediator of a Better Covenant

Secondly, he says, "Look to the covenant that Jesus is the mediator of." Look at verse 6. "Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises." In other words, he's saying, "Jesus is better not only because He's a better priest but because He is a priest of a better covenant. Jesus is better because He mediates the ultimate covenant." And he quotes from Jeremiah 31 which we will hear read in the Old Testament reading, God willing, next week. And in that passage, the author simply observes this. God would not have announced a new covenant if the old one was working. What's our saying? "If it ain't broke; don't fix it!" So the author, he makes this point explicitly in verse 13. "In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete." In other words, the very fact that he has to announce a new covenant tells you that there was something insufficient in the Mosaic economy.

It's a better covenant because the Law is written on the hearts of God's people

And in what way is this covenant better? He comes right out and tells you. Look at verse 10. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts." Now in the old covenant, when Moses came down from the mountain, where was the Law written? It was written on tablets of stone by the very finger of God. That's glorious, wasn't it? That's the hallmark of the Mosaic covenant, that they received written revelation from God Himself, written by His finger, in stone. That's repeated over and over in the Old Testament as the high point of God's revelation of Himself through Moses to the people of God. But guess what the author of Hebrews says happens in the new covenant? In the new covenant, God writes His Law by His Spirit on your hearts. In other words, the new covenant is better in the moral transformation that it works in the people of God.

It's a better covenant because God has taken us to be His possession

Second, not only will "I put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts," second, still in verse 10, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." You heard that quoted in Jeremiah 30 as Ralph read the Word of God this morning. That is a big Old Testament theme and it's a theme that announces the purpose of God. And what is the purpose of God for you? It is for you to be His possession and for He to be your possession. It is for you to be His inheritance and for He to be your inheritance. The whole purpose of God is that He would be ours and we would be His. "I will be your God; you will be My people." And that is realized by this new and better covenant.

It's a better covenant because "knowing the Lord" is more fully realized

Third, look at what he goes on to say. "And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest." This is referring to our experience of communion with God. "To know" is the language of intimacy in the Bible. How do you express a personal relationship with God in Biblical language? You "know" God. That's why J.I. Packer titled his book, Knowing God. His study of God is called Knowing God because the Christian longs to have a personal experience and knowledge of the living God. It's at the very heart of what true Christianity is about and this new covenant realizes that in a way that it was never realized under the old covenant.

It's a better covenant because we have actual forgiveness of sin

And fourth, he goes on to say - look at verse 12. "For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." And so in actual forgiveness of sins, the new covenant is superior to the old. Let me ask you a question. How many sins were forgiven by the sum total of all the Old Testament sacrifices? Zero. None. Not one sin was forgiven by the Old Testament sacrifices. All of the sins of the people of God in all ages are forgiven only by the blood of Jesus. What will the author of Hebrews say in two chapters? The blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sin. "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." That means that Abraham's sins and Moses' sins and Aaron's sins and Joshua's sins and David's sins were not forgiven by animal sacrifices. They were forgiven by the blood of Jesus. And the author of Hebrews is saying this new covenant has been fulfilled. On the night in which Jesus was betrayed, he took a cup and He said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin. Drink it, all of you." And so, when you are in despair, where do you look? Not to your circumstances, not to better circumstances, but to a better priest and to a better covenant. That's our hope, my friends. That's the hope that God has given to those who are despondent and despairing - to look to Jesus, the better priest of a better covenant.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We ask that You would work it into our hearts by Your Spirit that our focus of faith would be on Jesus only. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now would you take your hymnals with me and turn to number 647 and let's again fix our eyes on Jesus.

Receive now the Lord's benediction. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Holy Spirit is Signifying This - Hebrews 9:1-14

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. We continue to make our way through this epistle together. The argument has been made already in this book that Jesus is a better High Priest and is a mediator of a better covenant. One of the ways that the author of Hebrews argues that Jesus is a better priest is to say that He is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. That is, unlike the Old Testament Levitical priesthood that descended from Aaron and which offered animal sacrifices, men who lived and died in their ministries and were replaced year after year offered animal sacrifices, Jesus' priesthood was an eternal priesthood like unto Melchizedek. And so the author argues that Jesus is a better priest because His priesthood is like the eternal priesthood of Melchizedek.

Now in the passage before us today, the author takes up the second part of that argument that Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant. And the question that needs to pop into your mind is, "How so? How is it that Jesus is a mediator of a better covenant? How is this covenant better than the covenant which was inaugurated at Mount Sinai under Moses and in which not only the Levitical priesthood served but in which there was first the tabernacle and then later a temple and there were special furnishings and there were Old Testament rituals in the part of the worship of the people of God? How is this new covenant better than that covenant?" That's what the author of Hebrews is going to argue in the passage that we're studying today.

Now before we read the passage together, I'd like you to be on the lookout for three things. In verses 1 to 5, the author of Hebrews points us to the architecture and the furnishings, interestingly not of the temple, but of the tabernacle. So he's got in his mind not the temple in Jerusalem but the tabernacle, the instructions of which are written down at the end of the book of Exodus. So he's thinking of what the Bible says through Moses about how the tabernacle is to be built and what is to be put in the tabernacle. And in the first five verses he says, "I want you to think about the architecture and the furnishings of the tabernacle. What does it teach you?" That's the question that he's putting to you. What do you learn from the architecture and the furnishing of the tabernacle? Then, if you look at verses 6 to 10, he turns from the architecture and the furnishings to think about the ritual. He reminds you that in the outer part of the tabernacle, the priests would go and serve, but in the inner sanctum, in the Holy of Holies, only the chief, the head, the High Priest could go and he could only go once a year. And he said, "What do you learn from the rituals of the Old Testament tabernacle worship?" And then in verses 11 to 14, he says, "Now, in light of the furnishings and the architecture and the worship and the ritual of the old covenant, how does Jesus surpass that? How is Jesus better? How does Jesus fulfill that?" Be on the lookout for those three parts of this passage as we read it. And before we do, let's pray and ask for God's help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and as it is a word that especially focuses on the significance of the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, I pray that You would open our eyes to understand the importance and the meaning of His shed blood, that especially we would understand the Gospel in the reading and hearing of Your Word in such a way that those of us who already believe will believe it more, and that those who have come here this morning not understanding the Gospel or not believing the Gospel, will by Your Holy Spirit believe to their eternal salvation and everlasting good. I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it beginning in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 1:

"Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The author of Hebrews is arguing in this passage that Jesus is a better priest and a better mediator of a better covenant. And you have to ask yourself the question, "How? How is Jesus a better mediator of a better covenant?" And the author of Hebrews answers your question, "How?" in these three sections of the passage that we've just read. And I'd like you to look at them with me now.

The Old Covenant as a Shadow of Jesus

Consider the furnishings of the Old Testament tabernacle.

First of all, look at verses 1 to 5. He first answers your question, "How is it that Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant?" by pointing you to the Old Testament furnishings for worship and for the very architecture of the tabernacle. And he wants you to think about the theological significance of the tabernacle. The tabernacle architecture and furnishing, on the one hand, pointed to the presence and provision of God among His people. The very fact that the tabernacle was to be placed - where? When the tribes of Israel were traveling, where was the tabernacle? Right in the middle in the wilderness. The people of God were surrounding the tabernacle. What was that to symbolize? God is with us. When David decided that he wanted to build a temple for God, many, many years after Moses and the children of Israel had wandered in the wilderness, do you remember what God said to him? "When My people were wandering in tents in the wilderness, I was in a tent with them." The tabernacle, as beautiful as it was, as expensive as it was, was a big tent, less than half the size of this room. It was expensive, it was beautiful, it was impressive, but it was a tent, and it symbolized, from God to His people, "While you're living in tents as nomads in the wilderness, do you know where I'm going to be? Right next to you; camped out." It symbolized the presence of God.

And it symbolized the provision of God for His people. Think about the furnishings that are mentioned here in verses 1 to 5. There was the altar of incense. Now what does the incense represent in Old Testament worship? Well we know from the book of Revelation that it emphasizes the prayers of the people of God going up to God. And so the incense in Old Testament worship symbolized what? That God hears His people's prayer and especially the prayers of the priests on behalf of His people. And then think of the ark of the covenant itself. The ark of the covenant was the symbol of God's throne. It was the symbol of His sovereignty and His reign and His providence over His people. And then think of what was inside the ark of the covenant. There was a golden urn filled with manna. What did that manna symbolize? While the children of Israel were in the wilderness they said, "We're going to starve to death!" and God says, "No, I'm going to feed you bread from heaven." So the manna symbolized God's provision for His people.

Or think of Aaron's rod. His blossoming rod had been placed into the ark of the covenant. What did that symbolize? It symbolized God's providing a line of priests to serve His people. And then think of the tablets of the covenant which Moses had presented from God to the people. They were inside of the ark of the covenant and that symbolized God's righteous rule. And then what was over the top of the ark of the covenant? The cherubim with their wings. And here in verse 5 the author of Hebrews rightly says, "What does that point to?" It points to God's glory! You remember when the great angels were surrounding God's throne in Isaiah chapter 6 and singing, "Holy, holy, holy! The whole earth is full of Your glory!" Their veiling their faces and their feet symbolized the glory that they could not even bear to look upon in the immediate presence of God. So all of these parts of the architecture beautifully symbolized these blessings - the presence and provision of God.

But guess what? If you and I had lived in those days we would never have seen those things. The only people who saw these things were the priests. And some of these things not even the priests saw; only the High Priest, once a year, saw the things that were in the inner sanctum, in the Holy of Holies. And the author of Hebrews says, "Do you understand what that symbolizes?" It symbolizes that the way into the very presence of God had not yet been disclosed. The Old Testament ritual system wasn't the way into the presence of God. The curtain was still there, separating God and His people and from their enjoyment of His nearer presence. And so pause right now and just remember what the gospels tell you. When Jesus dies, what happens to the curtain that separates the Holy of Holies from the outer temple? It is rent from top to bottom. So the author of Hebrews points you to that architecture and that furnishing and says what? The very architecture and furnishing of Old Testament worship shows that it was not God's ultimate plan to bring us into His presence.

Consider the ritual of the Old Testament priesthood.

Then he says, "Think about the ritual." Look at verses 6 to 10. He asks you to think about the Old Testament ritual for worship and reflect on its theological significance. And he says very specifically, "The Holy Spirit signified in the Old Testament rituals that a time of reformation and change was coming." And especially he focuses on this. In verse 8, he points out that the very distinction between the outer tabernacle and the Holy of Holies shows that the Holy Place, the way into the Holy Place, had not yet been disclosed. In verse 9, he tells you that it pointed to a greater reality beyond itself. "It was symbolic for the present age." Again in verse 9 it makes clear that it was not able to make the conscience of the worshiper clean. And in verse 10 he says that it points forward to a time of reformation.

Old Testament worship as a sign.

If I could summarize that for you I'd do it with three "S"es. The author of Hebrews tells you that the Old Testament ritual worship was a sign, it was a symbol, and it was a shadow. Let me tell you what I mean by each of those words. It was a sign in that it represented to us, it signed to us, it signified to us that the way into God's presence had not yet been disclosed. So the very fact that the Holy of Holies was still there and that only the High Priest could go in, signified, the author of Hebrews says, that the way into God's nearer presence had not yet been disclosed in the Old Testament ritual.

Old Testament worship as a symbol.

Secondly, it was a symbol. Verse 9 - it was a symbol of our need for cleansing that the cleansing comes by the sacrifice of blood. So the Old Testament ritual taught you, you need to be forgiven; you need to be cleansed. And the way you're going to be cleansed it through a blood sacrifice. But it didn't provide a sacrifice that was able to forgive our sins. It provided a sacrifice that was able to make you ritually clean. If you went through the sacrificial system of the Old Testament you were declared ceremonially clean. But the blood of bulls and goats, we're going to learn in chapter 10, cannot forgive sin. This ritual could make you outwardly clean, it could make you ritually or ceremonially clean, but it couldn't get to your conscience. It couldn't cleanse your heart from the deepest sins, the most humiliating sins of your life. No, something else was needed and the very ritual system pointed forward to something else.

Old Testament worship as a shadow.

And so it was a sign, it was a symbol, and it was a shadow. That is, it foreshadowed a time of change. In other words, by design, by design, this Old Testament worship had in it a built-in obsolescence. You know, in this passage it was called "the first covenant." Well you don't have a first covenant unless there's a second. Elsewhere he calls it "the old covenant." Well you don't have an old covenant unless there's a new covenant. And over and over, the point is, this first covenant, this old covenant, was designed by God to be superseded by a better one.

Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Covenant

And that is what he is going to talk about in the last section here if you'll look with me at verses 11 to 14. What he says is, that if you understand the architecture and the furnishings of the tabernacle and if you understand the ritual of the Old Testament priesthood, you will understand that Jesus fulfills those rituals and He is a better priest and a better mediator of a better covenant because Jesus actually fulfills the things that Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34. And let me show you four ways that he does that here in verses 1 to 11.

In the new covenant, the way into the very presence of God has been disclosed.

First, in verse 11, we are told that when Jesus appeared, "he entered once for all into the holy places." That is, in Jesus, the way into the very presence of God has been disclosed. That's why it was so significant that the curtain was rent at the death of Jesus because Jesus is the way into the nearer presence of God.

In the new covenant, we are actually cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Second, in the new covenant, through the blood of Christ, we have not simply a reminder that we need to be cleansed, and not simply a sign that it is by the sacrifice of blood that we are cleansed, but we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's not just a sign of a symbol; His blood brings actual, complete forgiveness.

In the new covenant, we don't have the shadow; we have the reality.

And that leads us to the third thing. In the new covenant, we don't have the shadow; we have the reality. The old sacrifices looked forward to a greater sacrifice. That's why they were continually repeated. But over and over in the book of Hebrews, the author uses this word of this phrase to talk about Jesus' sacrifice. Do you remember it? You've heard it this morning and you've actually sung it this morning - "once for all." Now none of the Old Testament sacrifices were once for all. They were repeated over and over and over. But Jesus' sacrifice was once for all. And the point is this. Jesus, when He shed His blood on the cross as a sacrifice, actually fulfills the promises that were made through Jeremiah in the new covenant prophesies of Jeremiah 31. Do you remember what Jesus said on the night that He was betrayed? Luke records it for you. In Luke chapter 22, verses 19 and following, Jesus, at one point during the Lord's Supper, takes the cup and He says, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is poured out for you for the forgiveness" or "remission of sins." Do you see what Jesus is saying? He's saying, "All of those animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, did they forgive your sins? No, but My blood shed tomorrow? Yes, it will forgive all the sins of all those who trust in Me because it's not just a symbol that we need to be forgiven and it's not just a symbol that forgiveness comes through blood sacrifice; it is the one and only true sacrifice by which the sins of all those who have ever lived who trust in Me are forgiven." Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

In the new covenant, the sacrifice of Jesus actually brings about the forgiveness of sins.

And fourth, that is precisely what the author of Hebrews says is what is better about this covenant. What makes Jesus a better mediator of a better covenant? It is that His sacrifice actually brings about the forgiveness of sins. You know it's not uncommon in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, for the prophets and the leaders of God's people to contrast the true God with the false claims of the false religions. But here, Jesus is being compared with a ritual of the Old Testament and we are being told that He is better. He's a better priest; He's a better mediator of a better covenant. Why? Because His sacrifice actually forgives sin and it is the only sacrifice that forgives sin.

So here's the application of that truth to all of us. If you want to be forgiven of sin, nothing will avail but the blood of Jesus. He is the better priest; the better mediator of a better covenant. Your only hope, but a hope that is sure and certain is to trust in Him and He will wash away your sins. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word, a simple message that is presented by the book of Hebrews with the profoundest theology. We would not miss it, Lord. We all are sinners. We all need forgiveness. There is nothing that can avail to forgive us except the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Grant that each and every one of us would trust in Him today and always. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's sing the truth of God's Word singing number 307, "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus."

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit. Amen.

For This Reason He Is the Mediator of the New Covenant - Hebrews 9:15-28

If you'll turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, we will return after a one week break - it's been two weeks since we've been in this passage - to the argument of the author of Hebrews. And I'd invite you, even as you're turning to Hebrews 9, to look at verses 15 to 28. Go ahead and allow your eyes to scan the first part of the chapter and let me remind you where we've been. The last time we were together in this book two weeks ago we looked at verses 1 to 14 of Hebrews chapter 9 and we said that the argument there is that Jesus is a better priest of a better covenant, based on what is said in those verses, 1 to 14, about the Old Testament tabernacle furnishing and architecture and the Old Testament tabernacle, ritual, sacrifice, and worship. The author of Hebrews argues that those things pointed forward to the work that Jesus was going to do. Therefore, Jesus provides a better priesthood of a better covenant than the priesthood of the old covenant that oversaw the worship and the ritual of the tabernacle under the Mosaic covenant, or what the author of Hebrews keeps calling the first covenant, in contrast to the new covenant. So he's contrasting the Mosaic covenant with the new covenant and saying that Jesus is a better priest of a better covenant because the worship and the ritual and the sacrifices of that old covenant pointed forward to Jesus.

Now today in verse 15 he is going to draw a conclusion from the argument that he's been making so far, and then in the rest of the passage he is going to elaborate on that conclusion. The key verse in the passage that we're about to read is verse 15. So keep your eye on verse 15. He says the main thing that he wants to say in this whole section in verse 15. But then in verses 16 all the way to verse 28 he elaborates what he says. Now along the way I want you to be on the lookout for three things. After he says what he says in verse 15, in verses 16 to 18 he answers the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" That's a hugely important question. I think I've told you the story before of Michael Ramsden, who works with Ravi Zacharias, had been invited by Muslim teachers to come into a closed country and have a debate and dialogue with them about Christianity. And Michael Ramsden and his team prayed that they would have an opportunity to share the Gospel and they went in and they talked about whatever subject that the Muslim imam had asked them to speak about. And at the end of Michael Ramsden's lecture, one of the young men who was a Muslim teacher, raised his hand and asked a question. He said, "Could you please explain to me why you Christians think that Jesus needed to die?" Now understand that was a huge answer to prayer. That's exactly the question that Michael and his team wanted to be able to address and here was the Muslim imam asking them that question! And you remember right before Michael was about to answer it his friend grabbed him by the arm and said, "Michael, answer very carefully. It's one thing to die for the Gospel; it's another thing to die for sharing it poorly." And so Michael got to answer that question that the Muslim imam had asked because that's a key question. "Why did Jesus have to die?" And you understand that Muslims don't believe that He did. Muslims believe that Jesus only appears to die and that He was rescued from death. And so they don't understand why Christians think that Jesus had to die. Well the author of Hebrews in verses 16 to 18 is going to explain why we Christians think that Jesus needed to die.

Then if you look at verses 19 to 23, he is going to connect the dots by reminding you that in the Old Testament the main cleansing, the main agent of cleansing in all of the purification rituals of the Old Testament was? Blood. He's just going to remind you of how blood was used as the cleansing, the agent of cleansing in the purification rituals of the Old Testament. He's going to summarize it in that famous phrase - what? "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin."

And then finally, look at verses 24 to 28. Then he is going to point to the efficacy of Jesus' death, Jesus' shedding of blood, as the ultimate reason why Jesus is a better priest of a better covenant. But do you understand, it's all elaborating the argument that he makes in verse 15. Look out for verse 15, there's the main statement, and then there will be one more concluding statement in verse 28 and along the way sort of three points in the argument.

Now one other thing to look out for as we get ready to read this. Many of your English translations are going to translate one Greek word two ways as you move from verse 15 to verse 18. Now that may seem a little arcane to you but I'm going to explain it in the sermon so let me just warn you ahead of time. In verse 15, you're going to see the word in your English translation probably translate "covenant" twice. Did you see "new covenant" and then "first covenant"? And then if you look at verse 18 you're going to see this word used again, "not even the first covenant." So there are three covenants - verse 15, "new covenant" and "first covenant" and then verse 18, "first covenant." So the word, "covenant," is used three times - twice in verse 15 and once in verse 18. But if you look at verses 16 and 17 you're probably going to see the English word, "will" or "testament," in most of your English translations. Now if you're looking at the New American Standard Version they translated it correctly. I'll just give you the tip. They translate "covenant, covenant, covenant, covenant, covenant" throughout the passage. But in most of our English translations it reads, "covenant, covenant, will, will, covenant," or "covenant, covenant, testament, testament, covenant." Be on the lookout for that because I'm going to try to explain that very briefly as we get to this passage today.

Now before we read let's pray and ask for God's help.

Lord, this is Your Word so open our eyes to behold wonderful things about the Lord Jesus Christ and His death for us in it. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 9 verses 15 to 28:

"Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.' And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Jesus: the Mediator of New and Better Covenant

Some of you like Papa John's pizza. I've just lost many of you right now in fact! You will know if you are a Papa John's pizza fan that one of the taglines in their advertisements are, or is, "Better ingredients. Better pizza." And then you know how the rest of the little jingle goes. I won't do it here! This is not a product placement by the way! What many of you may not know is that one of Papa John's major competitors sued them over that tagline and they said, "How in the world can you say that you have better ingredients than we do? A tomato is a tomato! A pepperoni is a pepperoni! What do you mean you've got better ingredients than we do?" Now I'm not about to get into that litigation and offer you my unprofessional opinion about who was right and who was wrong, but understand, the competitor was saying this to Papa John's - "How can you possibly make the claim that you've got better ingredients and therefore better pizza?"

Well in this whole section of Hebrews, the author of Hebrews is asserting that Jesus is a better priest of a better covenant. And when his opponents, his interlocutors comes to him and say to him, "Wait a minute. How can you possibly say that Jesus is the better priest of a better covenant?" he says, "Well thank you for asking that question. I would like to answer it. Let me tell you exactly why I'm saying that Jesus is a better priest of a better covenant." If you'll remember last week, he's already started that argument. Let's take a look at verse 11, for instance. He begins in chapter 9 verse 11 by saying the Old Testament priests ministered in a tabernacle, a big tent, and then later in a temple made by human hands. But Jesus is a priest in a tabernacle that is not made by human hands; it's made by God Himself. Therefore, He is a better priest. Look at verse 12. He goes on to argue the priests of the Old Testament had to enter in to the Holy Place by the blood of animals. That is, they had to make sacrifices for themselves and for their people from animals. Jesus does not serve as a priest in that way. He enters into the Holy Place by His own blood, thus He is a better priest. Verse 13, he says those sacrifices in the Old Testament were perfectly effective for ritual purification. In other words, if a priest wanted to declare you ceremonially able to participate in the worship and life of the congregation, as long as you had performed those rituals you were good to go, but those rituals couldn't cleanse your conscience, they couldn't deal with the guilt, they couldn't put it away finally. In fact, they had to be repeated over and over and over and over again. But Jesus' blood, verse 14, is able to cleanse the conscience. And that's why, when you get to verse 15, he says, "Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant." In other words, he's saying it is especially Jesus' death that shows why He is a better priest of a better covenant. His effective, atoning death is the fundamental reason why He is a better priest of a better covenant. And he explains it in verse 15 and I want you to see three things especially.

By Jesus' death, we receive an eternal inheritance.

First of all, notice what he says. "So that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance." So Jesus is a better priest because through His death we receive the promises that God has made to us to give us an eternal inheritance. There's the first assertion. It is through Jesus' death that we receive the promises that God made to us all the way back in Genesis 3:15 and in Genesis 12 and in Jeremiah 33 as we read this morning. It's through Jesus that we receive that promise. There's argument number one.

By Jesus' death, we are purchased back from what our transgressions deserve.

Argument number two - "since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgression." Now this is amazing. We could spend not only today but weeks on that one phrase. He is asserting that Jesus' death redeemed. Now redeemed is the language of purchase. By Jesus' death, we are purchased back from what our transgressions deserve. The Old Testament sacrifices did not work that way. They made you ritually pure but they did not purchase you back from what your transgressions deserved. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Jesus is a better priest of a better covenant because His death actually bought you back from what your sins deserve."

By Jesus' death, sins committed under the Old Covenant are forgiven.

And then third, notice what he goes on to say. "A death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant." Wait a second! Did you hear that? "A death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant." Last week, two weeks ago, after we had finished working our way through Hebrews 9:1-14, many of you said, because I've said several times in this series that the sacrifices of the Old Testament did not forgive one sin, and so I've had many of you - and many of you came up after that last sermon and said, "Okay, so you've got to explain to us. If those sacrifices did not forgive sin, how were people forgiven in the days of the old covenant?" And my friends, that is exactly the right question to be asking and that is exactly what the author of Hebrews is answering in Hebrews 9:15. And here's what he's saying to you - how were people forgiven under the old covenant? Only by the blood of Jesus. The author of Hebrews argues here that Jesus death worked both directions. It not only forgives the sins of those who now believe in Him; it covered the sins of all believers in the Old Testament who lived before He was incarnated. His death, and I'm going to use a fancy word, His death had effects that were proleptic. That is, it had effect back in time before He came into our space, time, history. And the author of Hebrews is going to explain how today. But it's so important for us to understand that that is one of the ways that the author of Hebrews is explaining to us why Jesus is a better priest of a better covenant because all of those Levitical sacrifices were not effective for the forgiveness of sins but Jesus' one death covered all the sins of all believers in the ages before He was incarnated in this world.

The Necessity of Jesus' death

Now he elaborates that point. I want you to see how he elaborates that in this passage today. The first thing that he argues is this. Why is it that Jesus had to die? Look at verses 16 to 18. Because Jesus was fulfilling the penalty that was due to us because we had broken the covenant. In the Old Testament, when you make a covenant - go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis 15 and look at verses 9 and following. In the Old Testament when you made a covenant, there was often a ritual attached that. You will see that ritual in Genesis 15 verses 9 and following. You will see that ritual next week when we read Jeremiah 34 and especially verses 17 and following. So the very next chapter that we're going to read in Jeremiah - we read 33 today; we're going to read 34 next week - and in Genesis 15, you will see a very strange ceremony. In Genesis 15 when Abraham asked God, "Lord, how do I know that You're going to fulfill Your promises to me?" Do you remember what God said? "Take a heifer, take a goat, take a ram, take birds, kill them, divide the carcasses of the large beasts and lay them side by side." It's almost like an aisle is made. "Put them side by side and then wait for Me." Now everybody in the Old Testament would have known what was going on. Everybody from the time of Moses to Jeremiah would have known, "Ah, God is about to do a covenant making ceremony."

Now when covenant were made when those animals were slaughtered, do you know why the animals were slaughtered? The slaughtered animals were a symbol of what ought to happen if you were unfaithful to your part in the covenant. In other words, the slaughtered animals pictured the judgment deserved for violating the covenant. And that is referenced here in Hebrews chapter 9 verses 16 to 18, so look at it with me very closely. "For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it for a covenant is valid only when men are dead. But it is never in force while the one who made it live. Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood." Now I've just read that passage from the New American Standard Version but you know that your passage reads differently. It reads like this. "For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood."

Now translators are not dummies. They have reasons why they translate things the way they translate and let me just explain to you very briefly why it is that so many modern translators switch from "covenant" to "will" or "last will and testament" in this passage. It's for some very simple reasons. For one, we have a lot of commercial and legal documents from the first century A.D., the time and culture surrounding this particular passage, in which the Greek word, diatheke, which is used in this passage, is used either to refer to a last will and testament or to a commercial transaction or disposition. And so Greek scholars say Paul is using a contemporary illustration from the idea of a will or a testament or a disposition to illustrate Jesus' death as the mediator of the new covenant. And they especially argue that because if you'll look back at verse 15, what two ideas are used? Death and inheritance. Now none of us have to be attorneys or play one on TV to know that death and inheritance and last will and testament all go pretty well together. That makes a lot of sense. But that, I think, is not the right way to translate the passage. I don't think that actually is what the author of saying at all. He's actually saying Jesus is seen to be a better priest of a better covenant because He died precisely as the sacrifice for the broken covenant.

Do you see? You understand that the idea of death and inheritance goes just as easily with the idea of covenant as it does with the idea of testament. But the fundamental difference between a covenant and a testament is what? Covenants are made between living people; testaments don't go into effect until someone dies. We see covenant happen all the time here at First Presbyterian Church in wedding ceremonies. Two young people who have no idea what they're getting into stand up before the congregation and they make a covenant with one another to love, honor, and cherish as long as they both shall live. And those of us who are fifty and older say, "Those kids have no idea what they're getting into." But they make a covenant. They are two living people who make a covenant with one another. Testaments don't go into effect until someone dies. But in the Old Testament, if you violated a covenant, what did you deserve? It was pictured in the death of the animal.

And here in Hebrews chapter 9 verses 16 to 18, the author of Hebrews is saying, "Let me explain to you why Jesus had to die. Jesus had to die because you broke the covenant. The only way that God could forgive you is if Jesus paid the penalty for that broken covenant. So all the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were simply a picture pointing forward to the one who was really going to offer the one and only true sacrifice on your behalf for sin. It's quite stunning. And if you remember in Genesis 15, Abraham himself never walked between the pieces. Who walked between the pieces? The smoking oven and the flaming torch, which is a symbol of the presence of God. And when God went through those pieces, symbolically, He was promising that He would give His Son in the place of all who believe in Him. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "That's why Jesus had to die. You broke the covenant; He died in your place."

The crucial role of blood in the Old Covenant

Second, the author of Hebrews, look at verses 19 to 23, explains - and remember, he says, blood is the cleansing agent in almost every part of the old covenant ritual. The role of blood played a crucial role in the mediation of the old covenant. And in verses 19 to 22, the author shows us the centrality of the blood in the Old Testament sacrificial ritual and shows its significance for forgiveness of sins. And again, his point is that that blood ritual did not in and of itself forgive sins. It pictured the need for forgiveness of sins and it pictured God's provision for the forgiveness of sins, but it was not God's solution for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was God's solution for the forgiveness of sins. That's why He's a better priest of a better covenant.

The Finality, Efficacy, and Superiority of Jesus' death

And then finally, look at verses 24 to 28 where he shows that the finality and efficacy of Christ's death shows its superiority, especially verse 28. "Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many" - that's a stunningly important phrase. "Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many." The author of Hebrews is saying this. Jesus, on Calvary, in one time and one place for all time, faced and quenched the unmitigated wrath of God so that all who trust Him, in all times, both before He lived and after, are forgiven their sins because He Himself bore their penalty. It is quite stunning. And it means at least two things, my friends.

Turning from Jesus is folly, for the ritual of the Old Testament will never forgive one sin.

It means first of all, for those Jewish people at the time of the writing of this book who are considering going back to Judaism, that the author of Hebrews is saying, "It won't do you any good to go back to the ritual religion of the Old Testament because you understand that none of that ritual has ever or will ever forgive even one part of one sin. All sin is forgiven in Jesus. Turn your back on Him and you turn your back on the one place where sin can be forgiven." Do you all remember the gospel song, "Victory in Jesus"? There's a line in that gospel song that goes like this. "He sought me and bought me by His redeeming blood." And that is exactly what the author of Hebrews is saying here in Hebrews chapter 9. Jesus sought us and bought us with His redeeming blood and what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing.

God has been at work in this plan from before the foundations of the world.

But it also says something else. There may be some here this morning who treasure something more than Jesus or who do not think that Jesus' blood can avail for them. And the fact that Jesus coming into this world and dying on our behalf meant not only forgiveness for all who trusted in Him afterwards but for all who trusted in Him before He came, indicates to us that God has been at work in this plan from before the foundations of the world. And that means, as the old Scottish paraphrase of Romans 8 says, "That He loved us from the first of time and He loves us to the last."

At General Assembly this past week one of the delightful conversations that I enjoyed was with my old friend William H. McKenzie, who is the owner of Christian Focus Publications based on the Black Isle in Scotland. And they publish wonderful children's literature and wonderful theology books and I've appreciated their ministry over the years. And every time I'm with William he tries to leave me with a little word or an idea of spiritual encouragement. And this year, the word of encouragement he wanted to share with me was this. He said, "Ligon, God's love for you will never end because it never began." He said, "Now you think about that." And I did. And you see what he's saying. What he's saying is the reason that the believer need never worry about the love of God for him or her ending is because there was never a time when that love began. God's love for His people is as eternal as He is and as He never began and will never end, His love for His people never began and will never end. It always has been and it always will be.

As we sing in that wonderful old hymn that came out of the southern harmony, "Always thou lovedst me." Now you don't quite know. What does that mean? "Always thou lovedst me." That's not a word that we normally use - "l-o-v-e-d-s-t" That's sort of King Jamesy English being written in the 19th century. What does "lovedst" mean? It means He has always loved you - past tense. Go back as far as you can go to the beginning and He's always been loving you. And the coming of Jesus into the world to forgive sins that have already occurred is the proof that He has always loved you. You've been on His heart before you were and before the world was. And if you think that there is any sin that can keep you from Him, His pursuing love will astonish you. And if you think there is anything outside of Jesus that is greater than Him it cannot measure up to that kind of love.

You know sometimes we say to one another, in the flourish of our affection, "I've always loved you." But it's not true when we say it. There was always a time when we first met. And even if we loved one another from the moment our eyes met we can't say, "I've always loved you," but Jesus can. "I've always loved you." And He will say it face to face to all who trust in Him. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for the sacrificial dying love of Jesus Christ. Grant that by Your Spirit no heart this day would reject that love. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's sing one of the great hymns about the death of Jesus, "Man of Sorrows! What a Name!"

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God our Father and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forevermore. Amen.

Once for All - Hebrews 10:1-18

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10 as we continue our way through this letter. The theme has echoed throughout the book that Jesus is a better Savior. He's a better priest. He's a better sacrifice. He's the better mediator of a better covenant. And especially as we've looked at Hebrews 8, 9, and 10, the explanation of why Jesus is a better sacrifice has been very much on the author's mind. And in this culminating part of that section, we see a three part argument for the superiority of Jesus' sacrifice.

And I'd like you to notice, first of all in verses 1 to 4, what is said about the Old Testament ceremonial system. It is argued that that Old Testament ceremonial system of sacrifices did not result in the cleansing of sinners. It did not result in the forgiveness of sins; did not result in the addressing of the problems of a guilty conscience in the hearts of believers.

Then if you look at verses 5 to 10, you will see the author of Hebrews say what did and what does. And that is, the obedient atoning sacrifice of Jesus. That that actually was what was foreshadowed in the Old Testament ceremonial system.

And then finally in verses 11 to 18, the author of Hebrews talks about what that did. If the Old Testament ceremonial system didn't work, if Jesus once for all time sacrifice did, what did it do? And the author of Hebrews, especially in verses 11 to 18, appeals to Jeremiah 31, and says that Jesus' sacrifice did two very important things. We would use the language of justification and sanctification if we were to use the language of our catechism, and even the language of this passage. Forgiveness and transformation were accomplished by the obedient sacrifice of Jesus. I want to look at this passage with you this morning as we learn again how Jesus is better.

Let's pray before we read God's Word.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it. And especially, O God, we ask that You would show us the Savior in the perfection of His person and work and that You would grant us by the Holy Spirit faith in Him, that we would put no confidence in the flesh; that we would put no confidence in ourselves, but that all our hope would be in Him, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it beginning in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 1:

"For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

'Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.''

When he said above, 'You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings' (these are offered according to the law), then he added, 'Behold, I have come to do your will.' He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds,'

Then he adds,

'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.'

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

What were you made for? What did God create you for? For communion with Himself; for the enjoyment of God. You and I lost that in the fall of our first parents. Who or what can restore that? The Bible's answer from Genesis to Revelation is only Jesus. Only Jesus can restore that lost communion. How? Through his obedient atoning work. So what is it that we need in order to enjoy communion again with God in this world? We need forgiveness and renovation. And that is what Jesus provides us through His obedient, atoning work. We need justification and sanctification. We need to be brought back into a relationship of being declared right with God and to have restored to us the desire to treasure God above everything else. And that work God does by His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the topic of conversation in the passage before us. And I want you to see three things that the author of Hebrews says.

THE FORESHADOWING OF THE REAL SACRIFICE

The first thing you will see in verses 1 to 4. There he says this - God designed the ceremonial system under Moses to foreshadow the real sacrifice to come. The ceremonial system itself was incapable of forgiving sins. It was incapable of forgiveness or renovation. But it pointed to the real sacrifice that was able to forgive sins and to bring about transformation. In other words, the old covenant sacrifices could not perfect or atone for or forgive or reconcile people to God. But the real sacrifice that they foreshadowed could. Look at how he argues that. Look at verse 1.

"The law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities."You and I really cannot imagine how radical a statement that was, in the ears of those who first heard it. Can you imagine a Hebrew, hearing a preacher of the Word standing up saying the law was a mere shadow? It didn't have the reality in it to which it pointed. It was just a shadow of the things to come. And so consequently look at the end on verse 1. "It can never make perfect those who draw near." The author of Hebrews just categorically says the ceremonial law cannot get you to God. The ceremonial law cannot bring you back into communion with God.

And then in verse 2, he explains why. Verse 2 is designed to prove the point of verse 1. "Otherwise would they not cease to be offered since the worshippers having been once cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins." You see the argument. The argument is, you can know that the Old Testament ceremonial sacrifices did not accomplish forgiveness because they were repeated. If they had worked, they wouldn't have needed to be repeated. The very fact that they were repeated shows that they did not bring about forgiveness.

And then he goes on the say, notice, that the Old Testament worshipers were in fact - look at verse 3 - reminded of this very point every year when they had to repeat the sacrifices. "In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year." The author of Hebrews is telling us that the Old Testament worshipers would have been subjectively reminded of their sin, in the very act of having to repeat year after year after year the annual atonement ritual. And so he says the God-designed, old covenant ceremonial system, was not able to forgive. It pointed forward to the sacrifice that would forgive. His point is, the law could not give us what we need. What do we need? We need forgiveness. That forgiveness is promised to us in Jeremiah 31 verse 34, a passage that we read just a few weeks ago as we have been working through the book of Jeremiah; a passage which is quoted later in this chapter. Look down in your Bibles to verse 17 where he quotes Jeremiah 31:34 - "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

Now note the contrast. He says the very repetition of the ceremonial sacrifices would have reminded us that we still need forgiveness. But when he quotes the promise of Jeremiah 31:34, it is the promise that God will remember our sins no more. Now his point is to contrast the Old Testament ceremonial system, that did not bring about the full forgiveness of sins, and the promise of the new covenant which anticipated God remembering our sins no more. So if the Old Testament ceremonial system couldn't give us what we need, where do we find that? That's what he answers in verses 5 to 10.

JESUS IS THE REAL SACRIFICE

Look with me there where he says that "Christ came into the world as the real sacrifice in obedience to the Father's will." The Old Testament prophesied that there was a real sacrifice to come. Who is that sacrifice? What is that sacrifice? Jesus! Jesus is it. He fulfills God's will. He bears the penalty of God's will broken. He fulfills perfectly the requirements of God's will.

And what the author of Hebrews does is he quotes Psalm 40, verses 6 to 8. If you turn back in your Bibles to Psalm 40, and look up at the top of that psalm you will notice that it is by David. So when he is quoting Psalm 40, he's quoting David. And he quotes especially verses 6 to 8.

And here's what he quotes - "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me." Now chances are, your English translations read slightly differently in the second half of that verse. That's because your English translations are based on the Hebrew reading of that passage and the author of Hebrews is quoting from the Greek translation of that passage. And it's a fascinating story that I'm not going to get into today. But the author of Hebrews quotes this Greek passage on purpose, for a specific reason. Notice what he says - "but a body have you prepared for me." Now why is that significant? Because of what he says in verse 10. "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

Now let me explain what is going on here. Many of you will remember that one of the great themes in the Old Testament prophets, especially the later prophets, is obedience is better than sacrifice. It's not always said exactly that way, but things like that are said repeatedly in the prophetic literature. And the point is of course what? That God doesn't want you to go through the motions of outward ceremonial worship and not worship Him with your heart and in your life. In other words, God doesn't want you to be hypocrites. He doesn't want you to go through the ritual of worship without really worshipping Him from your heart and in all your life.

Isaiah chapter 1 verses 10 to 16 make that very point. When God says through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel, "I hate your new moons and your feasts and your sacrifices," why does God say that? Because the people are worshipping Him with their lips but their hearts are far away from Him. So over and over in the prophetic literature there is this theme, "to obey is better than sacrifice." Obedience is better than sacrifice. "Don't perform the rituals of the sacrificial system and feel all holy, when you don't really love the Lord your God from your heart and in all of your life," is the message that we hear over and over. And by the way, Jesus picks up on that message and turns it on the Pharisees repeatedly. He says, "You know Pharisees, you talk about how much you care about the law, but the fact of the matter is, it's all outward with you. You don't care about the essence of the law. You don't care about the moral law. You don't live life. You don't worship God like you really believe the law. You obey the lesser matters of the law and you ignore the weightier matters of the law." So Jesus says the same kind of thing in his ministry to the Pharisees.

Now, when David quotes this passage and says, "Sacrifices you have not desired, but behold, as in written in the scroll of the book of the law, I come to do your will." What is David saying? He is saying, "Lord, I know that you are not just interested me going through the outward motions of worshipping You. You really want me to worship You from the heart. You want my will to be given over to You. You want me to wholly give myself over to You." And David is declaring, "That's what I am going to do, Lord. I am going to obey You." Now of course, David did that imperfectly. He did not perfectly obey the will of God, but he is expressing there a desire to obey God and not simply go through the outer motions.

Well, did you notice in this passage when the author of Hebrews quotes it, he does not say, "Now when David came into the world," he said - what does he say? He says, "When Christ came into the world." Go back and look at verse 5. "When Christ came into the world," he said, "Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but a body have You prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure.' Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.'" In that passage, Jesus is saying that David said more than he knew. That David's words were actually ultimately fulfilled in Him. And Jesus was not simply saying, "I'm not only going to worship God outwardly through His appointed ceremonial system but I am going to obey Him with my life." He is actually saying this. Jesus is saying, "All of those ceremonial sacrifices pointed to My sacrifice, and My giving of My body as a sacrifice for you is the will of God that saves you. My obedient atoning sacrifice is what everything in the Old Testament ceremonial system was pointing forward to." The reason that Old Testament saints were forgiven is not because of the blood of bulls and goats, which we've already learned in verse 4 cannot forgive sins. The reason they were forgiven is because Jesus died. Jesus' death worked backwards and forwards to forgive all those who trust in Him. It is the only real and effect sacrifice. So the author is telling us here that Jesus, through His obedience and offering as a sacrifice, accomplished what we need. The Old Testament sacrificial system couldn't do what we need. Jesus did it.

FORGIVENESS AND TRANSFORMATION

CAME THROUGH THE REAL SACRIFICE

Well what did Jesus' sacrifice do for us? That's the third thing I want you to see and we see it in verses 11 to 18. Here, the author of Hebrews explains that Christ's work bring about the fulfillment of the new covenant promises. Christ's obedience to the will of God effectively and perfectly reconciles us to Him. Look at verse 11 to 18. It's a fascinating contrast. "Every priest stands at his service." The author of Hebrews draws attention to the fact the when Old Testament priests were in the tabernacle or temple ministering for you as your representative before God, how did they do that? They did that standing and they did it repeatedly. They were in there every day. So they were standing on your behalf every day. And he contrasts that to Jesus' work. Verse 12 - "When Jesus had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God." What's the point? The point is that you can see that Jesus' work is finished, it's perfect, it's done, and therefore you are forgiven once for all because He's not standing; He's sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. It's an indication that His work is done and His reign has begun. Whereas the Old Testament priest had to stand all the time, every day, on and on and on, doing their bidding on your behalf, Jesus does his work, offered one sacrifice, and sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And he says, "You see, this shows you that Jesus is a better priest. He has finished his work."

What work has he finished? Well, he tells you. Look at verse 14. "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Now that is a fascinating thing. You might expect him to say, that "He has perfected for all time those who had been justified." But he says that "He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." He has provided for your forgiveness. He is providing for your transformation. And he quotes Jeremiah 31 to explain this. Look at verse 15. "The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord.'" Now what will be involved in that covenant? First, "I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds. I am going to renew you. I am going to transform you. I am going to change you from the inside out. I am going to renovate you so that instead of treasuring something else other than God, you'll treasure God; so that instead of loving something else more than God, you'll love God; so that instead of being totally focused on yourself, you'll love others - your neighbors and your brothers. I am going to transform you from the inside out. I am going to write my law on your heart." What is the summary of the law that Jesus gives? Love God, love your neighbor. "I am going to write that on your heart." "And," verse 17, then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." What's that? That's justification! He's going to forgive us.

So in this passage the author of Hebrews is telling us that Christ brought about the realization of the promises of the new covenant both sanctification and justification; both renovation and forgiveness. You see our whole hope for the Christian life is in Christ. Look away from Him and you look away from hope. Our whole hope in the Christian life is in Christ and if we look away from Christ we look away from the only place where there is hope. What do we need to experience communion with God in this world? We need forgiveness and we need sanctification. And who can provide that? Only Jesus. And how does he provide that? Through his blood. And is there anything else that can provide that? No, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And my friend, you can sit in churches, even Gospel believing churches, and hear that said in your ears and not act on it in faith. And that would be a tremendous tragedy because the only hope that there is to be had in this world is in Jesus. If you want to commune with God, if you want to glorify and enjoy Him forever, if you want to have fellowship with God, if you want to live forever in His presence, nothing but the blood of Jesus will provide what you need.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, grant us faith in the finished work of the Savior so that we might enjoy not only free justification, an act of Your free grace, but that we might also have our desires so molded by Your Spirit in sanctification that we actually want to be with You; that we care about being with you more than anything else in this world. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now, if you take your hymnals in hand and turn with me to number 307, we will sing this very truth in, "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus."

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Christ Jesus. Amen.

Draw Near, Hold Fast, Consider How - Hebrews 10:19-25

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to be looking at verses 19 to 25 this morning as we continue our way through this glorious book. This is one of those turning point passages that you encounter in books of the New Testament. I know you're familiar with them in the writings of the apostle Paul, for instance, in Romans. When you get to Romans 12 verses 1 and 2, you know you've turned a corner in that book. The first eleven chapters have majored on a glorious exposition of the Gospel of God's grace. And then from chapters 12 to 15 especially, but even on into 16 and the final greetings, Paul begins to apply those words of truth. So he takes the doctrine and he applies it to your life. He takes the theology and he shows you how it works out in your practice of the Christian life. And something like that happens here in Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 10 verses 1 to 18, the passage we were in last time, you have this culminating statement about how Jesus is a better mediator. He's the better priest; He's a better sacrifice of a better covenant. And that theme has run throughout this book from the very first chapters. From the first chapter we saw that Jesus is better than Moses, He's better than Aaron, He's better than any of the priests of the Old Testament, He's better than any of the high priests, and that argument culminates in Hebrews chapter 10.

So the passage we're looking at this morning actually summarizes and crystallizes that truth and begins to apply it to our hearts. And there's a real sense in which everything that comes after this passage in the book of Hebrews simply is elaborating on the truth that is found within it. There are three particular applications of that truth in the passage. Before we read I want to point you to four things to be on the lookout for, but just know this - my message is essentially going to focus on three of them because the three exhortations or encouragements in this passage are all based on the one grand truth about Jesus that is articulated at the beginning. So be on the lookout for these four things. First, look at verses 19 to 21. There, you will see a passage in which the author of Hebrews draws a conclusion from what he is saying and what he has said and from what he will summarize in verses 19, 20, and 21 about the basis of our confidence before God. He tells us that since we have confidence before God and since we have a great high priest then he wants us to do something. And he's going to tell us three things by way of encouragement that is based on the confidence that he articulates in verses 19 to 21.

And what are those three things? Well you can notice them by the words, "Let us." So I'm going to give you three heads of "let us" here, okay? Look at verse 22, 23, and 24. "Let us draw near." There's the first one. Verse 23 - "Let us hold fast." Verse 24 - "Let us consider one another." So he's going to tell us something absolutely mind-blowingly glorious about Jesus in verses 19 to 21 and then he's going to say, "If you understand that, if you believe that, if you've taken that in, that will change your life and it will change your life in these ways: you'll draw near, you'll hold fast, you'll consider one another." It's an incredibly encouraging passage. So be on the lookout for those things as we read God's Word. And before we do let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Father, this is Your Word. It's meant for Your glory and our good. It's meant to show us the Savior. It's meant to show us the way of salvation. It's meant to show us the way of faith and life. Show us all these things as we read Your Word this morning and help us not only to understand but to really believe it, to embrace it personally. For this we ask the help of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 10 verse 19:

"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Jesus is better and that changes everything. That really could be the theme of this passage. Jesus is better than that changes everything. The author of Hebrews has been arguing that Jesus is better for ten solid chapters and along the way he has certainly applied that truth to our hearts and lives. He has wanted to liberate us in the glorious grace of the Gospel as he's expounded this glorious person and work of Christ, especially in light of what Jesus has done as the mediator of a new covenant. But here, he especially begins to take that truth and try and work it deep into our souls. And so I want us to see what it means that Jesus is better and that changes everything, especially by looking at the three encouragements that we find in this passage in verses 22, 23, and 24. But before we get to them, don't pass over verses 19 to 21 because those verses are the foundation for everything that follows in the book of Hebrews and there's a culmination of everything that went before. They're the basis of our encouragement in the Christian life. And so let's luxuriate in that that truth together for just a few moments.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST

The first thing the author of Hebrews wants us to see in verses 19 to 21 is this. Your whole relationship with God, your whole Christian life, is based on the person and work of Jesus. Everything is wrapped up in Him - who He is, what He came to do, what He in fact accomplished and finished on our behalf. The whole of the Christian life is wrapped up and based on Jesus' person and work. And that is the basis of the three encouragements that are going to come in this passage. And I want you to take this in with me for a few moments. He begins by saying, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God," then each of the things that follows in verses 22 to 25. But don't pass by what he has just said, because what he has just said has articulated a massive difference in the conscious and experience of people who lived before Jesus and those of us who live after Him.

Think of it, my friends. Under the old covenant, the believers who loved God and trusted Him were all required as a part of their experience of fellowship with God to offer sacrifices. But in this passage we're reminded that all of us who follow after Jesus, all of us who come after Jesus believing in the promises of God, trusting in Jesus, knowing the Gospel and embracing it, we do not offer sacrifices. It's really hard for us to even get that into our heads how different that would be. You know, you're an Old Testament saint, you believe in the promises of God that He gave in Genesis 3 and gave again in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17 and over and over again in the Old Testament. You believe those promises. You know that you can't save yourself; only God can save you. The truth of justification by faith isn't just a New Testament truth; that's a Old Testament truth. Paul says he got it from Moses in Genesis chapter 15 verse 6! But what did you still have to do as part of your worship, as part of your fellowship with God and part of your experience of the presence of God? You had to offer sacrifices.

Now the author of Hebrews is saying, "Christian, it is so important for you to understand that it is your duty not to offer sacrifices." Think of that. If you were an Old Testament saint it was your duty to offer sacrifices. If you're a new covenant believer it is your duty not to offer sacrifices. It is your duty instead to depend upon the sacrifice that God has offered for you. And that is beautifully expounded here in verses 19 to 21. You have confidence to enter the holy places, you have confidence to come in and fellowship with God where He is, to experience His special presence - how? By the blood of Jesus, by the Cross-work of Jesus, by His atoning work on your behalf, by His life, death, and resurrection for you. You have, by His blood, by His death, by His sacrifice, been given confidence to come in and be with God, to meet with God, to know God face to face. And verse 20 - "by the new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh." In other words, you come into the presence of God not through a curtain like the high priest did once a year into the holy of holies, you come to God through the flesh of Jesus.

You know what this passage reminds me of? It reminds me of the Upper Room. You remember Jesus, at the end of the Passover meal, He takes bread and He breaks it and He gives thanks for it and He says to His disciples, "This bread is My body. This is My body given for you. Take, eat; do this in remembrance of Me." And then He takes the cup and He says, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood poured out for many for the remission of sins. Drink of it, all of you." Body; blood - the constituent part of the Old Testament atoning sacrifices. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Jesus is, in Himself, in His body, in His blood, the one sacrifice that is offered to cover all your sins. Believer, take that in and believe that. It will change your life. It is your job as a new covenant believer not to offer sacrifices because God has already offered one for you in Jesus. It is your job, as a new covenant believer, to believe on the sacrifice that He has offered for you."

That's big, because if you're like me, even if you believe the Gospel, even if you believe that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life," even if you believe that, still when you sin and stumble you feel like you need to do something to get back in God's good graces. You have to bring your little token to get back in. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Believer, don't you understand? God has offered all the sacrifice that will ever be necessary for you to enjoy communion and fellowship with Him and He's offered it in His Son, and therefore, do not offer another sacrifice. He has already provided all the sacrifice that you need." It's so important for all of us to understand, even if you're here this morning or listening this morning and you've never trusted in Jesus Christ, if you're an unbeliever and you feel like there is a sin that separates you from God and keeps Him from accepting you - I was in a restaurant this last week and a waiter came to me and said, "Are you a pastor?" And I don't know what it is about me that looks like a pastor but he did! And I said, "Yes, I am." And he said, "Is it true that God accepts all of us?" Now isn't that a wonderful opening for a Gospel conversation? And I responded, "Well what do you mean by 'He accepts all of us'?" It was very clear to me, it was very clear to me very quickly that there was something in him for which he feared rejection. He knew that God ought to reject him. And in the course of the conversation I had the opportunity to say to him, "You understand that God is more willing to forgive you of your sin than you are to repent of it, but you must have faith in Him and in the Gospel of His dear Son and you must repent of your sins. And God is able to forgive everything, but He's more ready to forgive you than you are willing to let go of the sin that you're afraid that you're going to be condemned for."

And my friends, you may be in that kind of a position today. There may be something that you fear rejection from God. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "There need not be if you will turn to Jesus because even that sin that you fear rejection for, if you turn to Jesus, Jesus has provided all the forgiveness that you will ever need in His atoning sacrifice. Nothing need separate you from the love of God which is in Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." And the author of Hebrews is saying understanding this completely changes our lives and in particular he gives three encouragements that flow out of this. And I'd like to look very briefly at those three encouragements today.

GOD WANTS US TO DRAW NEAR TO HIM IN GOSPEL-BASED CONFIDENCE

The first one is this. Because of Jesus, God wants us to draw near to Him in Gospel-based confidence. Look at verse 22. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Do you realize how radical that is? If you took a peek right now at Exodus chapter 19 you might immediately remember the context of that passage. It's when the children of Israel have gotten to Mount Sinai. They're out of Egypt, they're across the Red Sea, they're out into the wilderness, they're at Mount Sinai and they're there at Mount Sinai to meet with God, to receive the Ten Commandments, but especially to worship Him. You remember over and over Moses had said to Pharaoh, "My people must go into the wilderness, a three days journey, to serve Me, to worship Me, to meet with Me." And so that's what they're there to do in Exodus 19. But do you notice what God tells Moses to tell the people? "Tell them, 'Don't get too close. Do not touch the mountain. Do not break through to Me or I will break out on them. Do not let them come up the mountain.'" In other words, God says, "Come worship Me but do not draw near." Now notice what the author of Hebrews says verse 22. Because of the finished work of Christ, God wants you to draw near in full assurance. This is mind-blowing.

Why? Because the blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sin, but Jesus' blood has. You know when we sing John Newton's wonderful hymn, "Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder," one of the phrases that we sing is, "He who washed us with His blood soon shall bring us home to God." And I think we could even change that in light of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 to 22 - "He who washed us with His blood has brought us home to God." God is calling you to draw near to Him in full assurance. And I know that many of you struggle with that assurance. You struggle with really believing that God loves you, really believing that God has forgiven you, really believing that God has poured out His blessings and His grace on you. And here the author of Hebrews is saying, "Because of what Jesus has done, God wants you to draw near to Him. You get to do what Israel could not do! You get to draw near to God in the body and blood of Jesus Christ, in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are to draw near to God."

GOD WANTS US TO HOLD ON TO THE HOPE HE HAS GIVEN

AND TO TRUST IN HIS PROMISES

But there's a second thing. Look at verse 23. Because of Jesus, God not only wants you to draw near, He wants you to "hold fast." He wants you to hold on to the hope that He has given you and to trust in His promises. The second encouragement that flows out of what Jesus has done here is - hold on. Draw near; hold on, hold fast. The idea is to hold on to God and to believe His promises with constancy, with consistency. Don't stop believing. Continue to trust God. That is not an easy thing in the Christian life. I was reading a Christian author just two days ago who's one of my favorite Christian authors. He's living right now and he teaches in Pennsylvania. And he has helped me marvelously in the area of sanctification, just teaching me what the Bible means by that. In the article that I was reading by him - he is around sixty years old looking back on his life, talking about four particular points in his life where the Lord has really dealt with him through some hard things - some physical struggles; all sorts of things. He talks about the ages - he says, "The ages between fifty and fifty-six were some of the hardest years of my life and all I could do was just hold on." That's a lot of the Christian life my friends, just digging your fingernails in and just holding on. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "In light of what Jesus has done, in light of the fact that Jesus has brought you to God - hold on. Don't give up. Don't stop believing. Don't stop believing those promises."

And I love what he says at the end of verse 23. "For he who promised is faithful." There's your motivation! Why should I keep on? Why should I hold on? Why should I not stop believing? Why should I continue to trust? Because the one who made the promises to you is faithful. It's the Heavenly Father and He made those promises to you in Christ before this world began. More than fourteen billion years ago He made a promise to His Son to you in the covenant of redemption that if you trust Him He will never leave you or forsake you, He will not fail you, He will forgive you, He will accept you, He will bring you home. Do not stop believing that promise.

GOD WANTS US TO SHOW CONSIDERATION FOR ONE ANOTHER

And then third, look at verses 24 and 25. This encouragement then flows - and it's interesting. The first two encouragements have to do with drawing near to God and continuing to trust in Him and His promises. Now the third encouragement has to do with how we relate to one another. Consider one another. "Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works" - there's the first thing - "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some" - there's the second thing - "but encouraging one another" - there's the third thing. So we have three encouragements - draw near, hold fast, and consider one another. And the third encouragement itself has three parts. How do we consider one another? How do we take in the truth about what Jesus has done and deploy that in the way that we relate to one another? Well here it is. Because of Jesus, God wants us to show consideration for one another in three ways. The first thing that he tells us to do is we are to provoke one another. Now you say, "We already do that!" Well I know; I understand, but he means it in a little different way. Instead of provoking one another the way we normally provoke one another, he wants us to provoke one another to love and good deeds.

Now at that point I've got to stop and mention - have you noticed already in this passage how faith, hope, and love have shown up? Verse 22 - what does he say? "Let us draw near with a truth heart in full assurance of…faith." And then verse 23 - "Let us hold fast the confession of our…hope." And then verse 24 he wants us to "provoke one another to…love." Faith, hope, love. You see it in Paul's writing but here it is in the author of Hebrews, which is another reason why I think that this guy must have studied under Paul. You know the earlier church fathers thought that Hebrews was written by Paul and this is probably one of the reasons that they thought that. There's so many wonderful Pauline themes in it. But whoever it is, he certainly knows that beautiful triad of faith, hope, and love.

But the first thing he said, "If because of what Jesus has done, because of who He is and what He's done for you, I want you to deliberately provoke one another to love and good deeds." You know it always strikes me that the apostle John, last exhortation before he died was, "Children, love one another," because that is so much at the essence of what it is to live the Christian life. How did Jesus sum up the Law? "Love God; love one another." And here's the author of Hebrew saying, "Because of what Jesus has done for you, consider how you can provoke one another, stimulate one another, spur one another on, not to irritation, not to frustration, but to love and good deeds."

Second, look at what he says - "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some." So if I could turn this around and make it positive, we're not only to provoke one another to love and good deeds we are to commit ourselves to the congregational assembly of worship. Lord's Day after Lord's Day we're going to be committed to gathering with the saints because we need to be with one another in our Father's presence and where two or three of us are gathered together in Jesus' name, there we enjoy the special presence of God. Jesus Himself says that. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Make that commitment. Don't neglect gathering together with one another. You need that."

And then third, he goes on to say - look again at verse 25 - "encouraging one another." You know, deliberately seeking to give one another encouragement. And he closes with the most interesting phrase, "And all the more as you see the Day drawing near." Have you ever seen in pictures or in the movies a guy wearing a sandwich board saying, "The end is near!" You know, that guy is always around. That's sort of how the world thinks of us as Christians - weird people that walk around with sandwich boards with funny signs on - "The end is near!" And then usually on the back of the sandwich board is says something like, "Repent! Believe! The end is near!" Well it's interesting that the author of Hebrews says, "The end is near…so encourage one another. You're closer today than you were yesterday to the end. So how should you respond to that? By encouraging one another.

All three of these things - drawing near, holding fast, considering one another - flow out of what Jesus has done for you in the Gospel because what Jesus has done for you in the Gospel is absolutely life changing. And the author of Hebrews wants you to believe that and he wants you to understand that and he wants it to impact the way that you life. May God do His work of grace in us and make it so. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Grant that it would not simply be spoken but lived and experienced in our midst. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's respond to God's Word taking our hymnals in hand and turning to number 677, "Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him."

Receive God's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

If We Go on Sinning Wilfully - Hebrews 10:26-39

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10; we're going to be looking at verse 26 and all the way to the end of the chapter. This is a hard, sobering, but important passage of Scripture. You may remember when we looked at Hebrews 6 together that I commented that Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the pastor of the Westminster Chapter in London, had remarked a couple of years ago that in his pastoral experience that misunderstandings of Hebrews 6 and 10 were very often accompanied by struggles with assurance in members of his congregation and those of other congregations where he preached. He said, not that these are the two most difficult passages in Scripture, but that the misunderstanding of them often unsettles the hearts of believers. And so before we read this passage I want you to be on the lookout for a few things that may help you not misunderstand this passage.

The first thing that I want you to see is this. The opening statement of the passage is really the theme of the whole section. If you look at verse 26, the exhortation is this - "If we go on sinning deliberately, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." And so you have to ask yourself the question, "What do you mean, 'go on sinning deliberately'? How so? In what way are you talking about me going on sinning willfully or deliberately? What is meant specifically, especially by 'deliberate sin'? What is the pastoral problem that the author of Hebrews is addressing?" Now getting the answer to that question right is key to your understanding this passage and either being wrongly discouraged by it or rightly encouraged by it. Now let me go ahead and give you the answer to that question. What is the deliberate sin that the author of Hebrews is warning us against going on in? The sin is the sin of rejecting Christ, of ceasing to believe on Him in whom alone is life eternal, of failing to continue in faith in Jesus, of looking for another way to stand accepted before God than in the righteousness of Christ. What has the whole argument of this book been all the way up to Hebrews 10:26? That Jesus is better. So what he's warning against is you deciding that something is better than Jesus or that there is another way to stand right before God other than Jesus. In other words, failing to put your faith in Jesus and persisting in that unbelief.

This is hugely important for understanding this passage. If you approach this passage thinking that it is about someone who truly trusts in Jesus and yet is struggling with some ongoing sin, you may well be deeply unsettled by this section in a way that the author of Hebrews did not intend. Now that is, of course, a very legitimate and common pastoral issue. True Christians that are struggling with some habitual sin - and if that's your struggle today, let me just encourage you to reach out to one of your pastors or elders. We want to help you and we want to encourage you in that. But the author of Hebrews is not trying to discourage you in that situation today. He is talking about someone who, along the way, once trusted in Jesus that just no longer does. They've given up on Jesus. They're looking somewhere else for their hope. And he is deeply concerned about that, because if Jesus is the better and only Savior there is no Savior apart and outside of Him. And so looking away from Him is a spiritual disaster. That's what this passage is about. Now let's pray before we read it together and consider God's Word.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Speak its truth deeply into our hearts and by Your Holy Spirit, enable us not only to understand and believe this Word, but especially and more to trust in Jesus and to keep on trusting in Jesus and to never stop trusting in Jesus and to trust in Jesus all the way to the end. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews 10 verse 26:

"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay.' And again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

'Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.'

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The whole Christian life gets down to Jesus, doesn't it? That's one of the things that the author of Hebrews is pressing home to us here. He's saying, in this warning, positively, "Keep on believing in Jesus. Keep on trusting Christ as He is offered in the Gospel. Don't quit. Don't look somewhere else. Don't look away. Don't find a hope somewhere else because it will be a false hope. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. You began with Jesus; keep on with Jesus; end with Jesus. Don't stop believing in Him." And really that's his one-point sermon in this passage. He unfolds that one point in five steps or stages, but it's all the same message. And you really see the main message, don't you, in verses 26 and 27.

THERE ARE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES FOR REJECTING JESUS

Here's the main point of the message and the first step along the way as the author of the Hebrews brings home this truth. "If we go on sinning deliberately, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." In other words, he's saying, "If we continue in the rejection of Jesus, there are eternal consequences." He is giving a warning here against the deliberate sin against truth to which this congregation was tempted. There were some there who were tempted to turn their back on Jesus and to refuse to continue to trust in Him for salvation. They may have been tempted to go back to some form of Judaism, maybe Essene Judaism, where they thought they could get all the things they found in Christianity without having to reject parts of their culture and their heritage which they thought Christianity compromised. But whatever the temptation was, it was a temptation to stop trusting in Jesus. And the author of Hebrews is saying very clearly here that if a person willfully and knowingly rejects Jesus, the one real sacrifice for sins, there is nowhere else for him to turn.

Didn't we hear that message in Jeremiah 36 this morning? Jeremiah, through Baruch, brings a word of warning and mercy to the king and to the people. The warning is: "Judgment will come if you do not repent! But I extend to you My mercies. Repent and believe and I will save you!" And the king cut the message up and burned it. Two options are set before the king: Repent and be saved! Believe the Word of God. Receive His promises of mercy and be saved! Or ignore them, reject them, turn your back on them, and be judged."

It reminds me of a moment that I had with a friend of mine. A friend of mine was a solicitor in the foreign office of the British government in London, and his office was in a building very close to the Imperial War Museum in London. If you've ever been to London, you must visit the Imperial War Room where Churchill often operated the resistance to the Nazi tide that was sweeping across Europe. And when you get to the end of that tour you hear the speeches of Hitler at Nuremberg and they are terrifying to hear. Even if you can't understand a word of German, they are terrifying in their mesmeric effect. But then immediately after you hear Hitler speaking you hear Churchill speaking. And I just happened to walk into the room as Churchill was responding on the floor, this audio version of him responding on the floor of the houses of parliament in Westminster saying, "We gave you the choice between honor and war. You chose dishonor and you shall have war." Two, stark alternative that he had given to the Third Reich. They rejected the possibility of peace and honor and they got war. That is exactly what is happening in Hebrews 10 and that is exactly what happened in Jeremiah 36. Here is the opportunity. Embrace Christ by faith and have peace with God, or turn your back on Him and reject Him or you will have God's judgment.

THE GREATER MERCY OF NEW COVENANT CARRIES

WITH IT A GREATER JUDGEMENT WHEN IT IS REJECTED

Now he unfolds this in an argument. You see the second step of the argument, don't you, in verses 28 and 29. Here, he takes you right to Moses, because you remember, these people are tempted to go back to some form of Judaism, perhaps Essene Judaism. And so he quotes Moses to them. Look at verse 28. "Anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses." And then he asks a question. "Now do you think that the punishment would be less under the new covenant or more?" Notice how he puts it. Verse 29 - "How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" The point is simply this - the greater mercy of the new covenant carries with it a greater judgment when it is rejected. He's saying, "Don't think that if God in the days of Jeremiah and Baruch and Jehoiakim wrought His just judgment on people who turned their backs on His Word, what do you think He's going to do when He has sent His final Word into the world, Jesus, and people say, 'I'm not going to believe on Him. I can find my hope somewhere else.'" There is a terrifying judgment that awaits God's new covenant mercies when they are rejected.

THE VERY THOUGHT OF GOD, WHO IS HOLY AND JUST,

OUGHT TO PROMOTE THE FEAR OF GOD IN YOU

Third, he then quotes Scripture. Look at verses 30 and 31. He gives you Scripture proof of this point. He tells you two things about God. Look at verse 30 - "For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay.' And again, 'The Lord will judge his people.'" And then he gives a little explanatory gloss on those quotations. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." That's the phrase that inspired the line from Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." What's the point? The very thought of God, who is holy and just, ought to promote the fear of God in us. When you realize that God is just and we are not and that He will deal justly with the earth, it ought to promote the fear of God in you. You ought to be looking for His provision of mercy because you know that you need it. But to reject that, to fail to respond to the character of God by applying to His kind and free offers of mercy, no, this is an indication of the certainly of God's judgment falling on us. The point, of course, of this passage is to remind us of the awesome judgment of God and to ask ourselves the question, "What in the world will enable me to escape that judgment when I stand before Him in the final of times?" And if any of my answer is, "My goodness," I'm really in trouble; I don't know myself very well. The only hope is in Christ and in Christ alone and in the righteousness that He supplies and in faith alone in Christ alone that we might receive His righteousness credited to us.

And then he goes on to turn and give a word of encouragement to this congregation. He's given then a very stern warning in verses 26 to 31, but if you look at verses 32 to 34, the fourth part of his unfolding of this argument is actually an encouragement. He asks them to examine the grace of God at work in their lives. Look at what he says in verse 32. "Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated." In other words, he asks them to examine the graces in their lives implanted there by the Holy Spirit as an encouragement and impetus to their perseverance in faith. The author here cherishes a warm hope for this congregation based on his knowledge of how they bore up under trial. And he wants them to reflect on those times and use them as a basis from which to continue on in faith in Christ. This passage makes very clear that the author intends this section as a warning to believers, not a blast against apostates. His purpose is to encourage believers to keep on believing in Christ. They began with faith in Christ; they continue in faith in Christ.

And that's even more evident when you look at verses 35 to the end of the chapter. "Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, 'Yes a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith.'" Now did you notice that in those verses he gave you a three-part formula for continuing in the Christian life? What's the first part? The first part is putting your hope in the promises of God and their reward. Put your hope in the promises of God and their reward. Did you notice what he said? "Don't throw away your confidence. It has a great reward. You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised." How do you live the Christian life? Believing the promise of God that He will reward those who trust Him.

Second, notice what he goes on to say. Verse 37 - "For, 'Yet a little while and the coming one will come.'" Here's the second key to perseverance in the Christian life: Looking to the coming of Jesus. Living in light of the coming of Jesus. Remember when we studied 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians together and the whole theme of both of those books was what? Live the Christian life in light of the coming of Jesus. Well here's the author of Hebrews saying the very same thing here. It's another evidence of Paul's influence on the theology of the author of Hebrews. Live your life in light of the coming of Jesus.

PERSEVERING IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS BY FAITH

And then finally, notice what he says. "My righteous one shall live by faith." How do you go on in the Christian life? By faith. You begin the Christian life by faith in Jesus; you continue in the Christian life by faith in Jesus. You endure in the Christian life by faith in Jesus. Sinclair Ferguson says, "We persevere through faith and never apart from it. Perseverance in the Christian life is always through faith. By faith we live." By faith we're saved. By faith we live. And so he's given you a formula for persevering in the Christian life.

Now the challenge that these Hebrew Christians were facing are a little bit different than the challenge that we saw set before us in the book of Jeremiah chapter 36 this morning. None of these people cut up Scripture and threw it in the fire and they're probably not many of us in the room that would respond to Scripture that way. Probably not many of us would cut up our Bibles and throw them in the fire. But here's what Ian Murray says. "Scripture does not need to be denied for apostasy to begin. All that is needed is that Scripture takes second place in our calculations." The author of Hebrews is telling us, "Don't put the promises of God in second place in your calculations. Don't put Jesus in second place in your calculations. Don't put the coming of the Savior in second place in your calculations. Don't put faith in Christ as He is offered in the Gospel in second place in your calculations. Keep on believing Jesus."

You know, many people start out with a profession of faith and somewhere along the way they get lost. And it's always because they've taken their eyes off Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith, as this author if going to say himself in just a few more verses. He's saying, "Keep your eyes on Jesus." The Christian life can be hard because we live in a sinful and broken world, but keep on believing. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for this Word. It's my prayer that by the grace of Your Holy Spirit that You would cause every member of this congregation, in fact every friend who is with us this morning, to believe on Jesus for salvation, but not only that, to keep them believing in Jesus all the days of their lives until the very end and that You would bring them home. In Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's sing of the only hope there is, our hope in the Lord. 523 - "My Hope Is in the Lord."

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Faith is...? - Hebrews 11:1-7

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. As you're doing so, I want you to be sure to look at the last verse of Hebrews 10. You'll remember last week, as we looked at Hebrews 10:26-39, we encountered a chilling warning passage, the main point of which is - if you turn your back on Jesus (because the whole theme of the book has been that Jesus is better; Jesus is the only Savior; Jesus is superior to anything offered anywhere else) if you turn your back on the only Savior, Jesus, there are dire eternal consequences. And you may be asking yourself the question, "How do you get from that kind of a warning in Hebrews 10:26-39, to a chapter on faith, in which the heroes of the Scriptures, Old Testament and New, who trusted God, are celebrated? What is the connection between Hebrews 10:39 and Hebrews 11:1?"

Indeed, there is a connection. Look at verse 39. He ends that section of warning with an encouragement. Remember, the last few verses turned to a positive exhortation and he says to his congregation in verse 39, "We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." In other words, he's indicating to that congregation of Hebrew Christians that he has good and solid hope for their spiritual condition in Christ Jesus. "You are not of those who are going to turn your backs on Jesus and look away from Him and thus be judged. You have faith." And so that statement in Hebrews 10:39 leads him into this exploration of faith in Hebrews 11 in which he says, "And that's always the way it's been with the people of God. We've walked by faith from the very beginning." And so he begins to explore the vital subject of faith.

Well before we read God's Word together, let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and our prayer this morning is the same prayer of that old disciple who said, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." Lord, we come before You believing; help our unbelief, even as we study this word about faith today, in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews 11 verse 1:

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Faith is an important and repeated subject in the New Testament. Two hundred and forty plus times, God speaks to us about faith in the New Testament. God is a good teacher; good teachers repeat points that need to be brought home and brought to bear into the hearts of their students. And when God repeats something 240 times, He wants you and me to understand! Interestingly, Christians are called various things in the New Testament. Sometimes, Luke, for instance, calls us "followers of the way." But one of the important titles for Christians in the New Testament is in fact found in Acts 2:44. Do you know what we're called there? "Believers." Now think about that for just a second. We are being defined as people who believe, as people who have faith, as people who exercise faith, as those who are of faith, as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 10:39. So our very title, our very designation, the denomination of believers is those who believe, those who have faith. Faith is vital not only to salvation, not only to the beginning of the Christian life, and our justification, our forgiveness, our acquittal, our pardon; faith is vital to the ongoing living of the Christian life. So the author of Hebrews wants to address us about faith. He's given us warnings in this book - chilling warnings, sobering warnings. Now, he wants to instruct us in the instrument that God has appointed for our living of the Christian life.

FAITH DESCRIBED

And he begins in Hebrews 11:1-2 not so much giving us a definition of faith but giving us a description of what faith does, of how it works.

And I want to look with you this morning at a few things that he teaches us about faith in these opening verses of Hebrews 11. The first thing I want you to see is this. What he's teaching us about in verses 1 and 2 is the necessity and the role of faith. Faith is necessary for the Christian life and it has a unique and important role in the Christian life. And what he's saying in verses 1 and 2 is this: "Here's how faith functions in your life." Now if you are a believer, one who has faith, you will be interested in how it is that faith functions in your life, and that's exactly what he's going to explain in these verses. Look at verses 1 and 2. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." In this passage, he is telling us that there is a crucial relationship between faith and our assurances of the promises that God has given to us, the rewards that the Lord has pledged to us, which we have not yet received. Faith assures us of those things hoped for. The very word that he uses in this passage for assurance is a word that was used in the day that this letter was written for a title deed to a house. So he is saying faith is the title deed to the things that you hope for that God has promised to you. Faith is the instrument whereby you are assured of receiving what God promises to you in the Word.

And then he goes on to say, and it is "the conviction of things not seen." In other words, it is the way we become convinced of things that we don't see yet. And think of how important that is in the whole story of the Bible. God comes to Noah - we'll be told this story in verse 7 - God comes to Noah and He says, "I'm going to flood the world." And Noah looks up to the sky and he says, "It doesn't look like rain." And God says, "I'm going to flood the world; build an ark." And Noah looks all around and it's all dry land. And Noah built that ark - how? By faith. He doesn't seen any evidence that there's a flood coming. All he has to go on is God's Word. That happens over and over in the Bible. God comes to an old man, Abram, and He says, "Abram, you and your wife, Sarai, are going to have a little boy." And Abram says, "Lord, I'm pretty old and Sarai is pretty old." And God says, "You're going to have a baby. You're going to have a boy; you're going to have a son; you're going to have an heir. You, yourself. I'm going to give you a son." And we're told in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness. Over and over, believers are called to trust God's Word even when they don't see it yet. And the author of Hebrews says this is how faith works. It is the instrument whereby you are convinced of things that you can't see yet. And so in this passage, he's describing what faith is like and how it works. It works in our assurance in the Christian life; it works in our conviction of the promises of God to us that we don't see yet.

Now he doesn't give a definition in this passage. He gets close, doesn't he, in verse 6. Take a look at that. "Without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God." And then he says two things - "must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." In other words, he indicates that faith is both in God's person - you believe that He is - and in God's promises - you believe that He will fulfill His promise to reward you. And indeed that fits with the whole New Testament testimony to the definition of faith. In our second question of membership, and we say it so often around here you can probably say it yourself along with me, in our second question of membership we ask, "Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners" - that's part one - "and do you receive and rest on Him alone for your salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?" - that's part two. And do you listen to both of those parts? The first part asks you, "Do you believe?" The second part asks you, "Do you trust?" Do you believe and do you trust? Those are the two parts of faith. Faith is believing in God and what He says, especially Christ as He is offered in the Gospel, and trusting God's promise to fulfill His pledge to you. It is both believing and trusting.

And each of these things are emphasized in the stories about faith in the New Testament. And I want to especially think with you for a few moments about the way that trust is brought home to us, for instance in the gospel of John. Over and over in the gospel of John, we encounter metaphors or word pictures of what faith is. For instance, in John chapter 6, verse 37 especially, faith is described as coming to Christ. Now you're familiar with Matthew's words in which he records Jesus saying, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Well the idea of coming to Christ is a picture of faith. And in John 6:37 when Jesus talks about coming to Him, He's talking about faith in Him. What's the significance of that metaphor? It's simply this. You're transferring your trust from whatever else it is you're trusting in to Jesus. You're coming to Jesus with your trust. Jesus, I used to trust in this; now I'm going to You and I'm going to put my trust in You.

But there are other pictures of faith in the gospel of John. In John chapter 6 there's the metaphor of eating of Christ. You remember when Jesus says, "Unless you eat My flesh, you have no part of Me?" He's not talking about cannibalism. He's talking about depending on Him for the sustenance that you require to live. Do you remember the passage that David read from Jeremiah? At the end of the story, what happens to poor old Jeremiah? Well he's not sent back to the house where he'd been jailed before, but he is kept under the courtyard and what do they give to him each day? Each day they give him one loaf of bread, until it ran out, because you remember the city's under siege. So that was his allotment. He was given one loaf of bread every day to live on. Well when Jesus says, "Unless you eat my flesh you have no part of me," He's saying this - "I am the sustenance that you need to live on. Man does not live by bread alone. He lives by faith in Me. You can only get the sustenance from Me. I'm the only one who can provide that."

Or, there's the metaphor of drinking. You see that all the way back in John 4. And drinking is a picture for how Jesus alone can provide us with satisfaction. When we're hot on a Mississippi summer afternoon and we've either been running or we've been working in the sun, nothing is like cool water to slake the thirst. It rehydrates us, it rejuvenates us, and boy does it taste good! But it's a picture, in this passage, John 4, of how Jesus is the one who ultimately can fulfill our desires. Just as that cold water slakes our thirst, so also Jesus is the only one who can fulfill our desires. And then of course there's the picture of John 15 of abiding in Christ. Faith there is pictured as finding our fellowship and our communion in Him; it's finding our strength from Him. All of these are pictures of trusting God, of trusting Jesus in the New Testament. And the point of course is simply this. Faith involves in believing in a person, Jesus, and in His promises. And it involves trusting who He is and what He has done for you. So faith is both belief and trust.

FAITH AND CREATION

And the author of Hebrews wants to explain how that faith works in the Christian life and here's what he says. Look at verse 3. He begins by saying that faith frames the whole way that you look at the world, even its creation, even its origin. Notice his words. "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." By faith we believe that God created the world. None of us can go back and see the beginning with our own eyes and none of us can see what God created this world out of, but God has told us in His Word that He created this world and by faith we know this.

FAITH AND WORSHIP

Then again in verse 4, he explains how faith and worship go together. Have you ever read the story of Cain and Abel and come away scratching your head, thinking to yourself, "Okay, so why is it that Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's was rejected?" It's not immediately apparent in the text as you're reading it. And the author of Hebrews says here, in verse 4, "By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain., through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts." The author of Hebrews identifies faith in Abel's worship of God as the quality that set him apart from Cain. What's the difference between Cain and Abel? Abel worshiped by faith. He offered sacrifice by faith. He believed God, he trusted in God, and God commended him. This reminds us that we cannot worship God without faith. We must have faith if we are going to worship God rightly.

FAITH AND COMMUNION WITH GOD

And again, if you look at verse 5, the author of Hebrews goes on to explain that faith plays a role in our communion with God. Faith is not only important for our understanding of creation, it's not only important for our worship, it plays a significant role in our communion with God, and he tells the story of Enoch. "By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God." And so he indicates that God took pleasure in Enoch's faith. Faith was the quality in the fellowship which God enjoys with Enoch that he commended. And so we are being commended to fellowship with God by faith, the author of Hebrews is explaining.

FAITH IS BOTH NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL

And then, in verse 6, he explains that faith is both necessary and essential. "Without faith it is impossible to please him." And then he says these words; I want you to listen very closely. He says, "He who comes to God must…" Now when an author of Scripture says that, he's got my full attention. "He who comes to God must…" because I want to come to God, I want to fellowship with Him now in this life, and I want to be with Him forever. I want to come to God. So when an author of Scripture tells me, "He who comes to God must…" I'm all ears. Must what? Must what? I want to know! What's the answer? And he says two things - "must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him." In other words, faith is both belief in a person and a promise. It is a belief in the person of God and especially in our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is a belief in the promises that God has made to us in His Word. So faith is both personal and it is based on the Word of God to us in His promises. Faith is believing God's person and promises.

And then he says, look at verse 7, that faith takes God at His Word despite the evidence to the contrary. "By faith Noah, being warned by God about things yet unseen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." Noah believed what God said to him and acted on it. And the author of Hebrews is saying this to us because he wants us to understand that this is exactly how it works in the Christian life. Believers believe God and His Word more than we believe anything else, and it changes the way that we look at the world, and it changes the way that we live this life. And that's what we're going to be studying together for the next several weeks as we work our way through Hebrews chapter 11, this hall of fame of faith.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we do believe. By grace we believe, by the work of Your Holy Spirit we believe, but help our unbelief. Help us to understand what faith is. If we are here today with flagging faith, with failing faith, with evaporating faith, with struggling faith, fighting with doubts, Lord, help our unbelief, strengthen our faith. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Now if you'd take your hymnals in hand we're going to sing about faith in Christ. Number 705, "I Know Whom I Have Believed."

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

By Faith, Abraham and Sarah... - Hebrews 11:8-19

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 as we continue our way through this book and through this great chapter on faith. The book of Hebrews, we have said all along, is about the great theme that Jesus is better. And trusting in Jesus means a life of faith, a life in which we base our whole hope on Him and on His promises. We just sang, "More than all in Him I find." We put all of our hopes in Him. He is greater than any other treasure in life. So a life of faith means a life in which we base our whole hopes on Him and on His promises. And the author of Hebrews is explaining that by way of illustration in Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews 10:39 he says to the congregation, "You are those who are of faith. I know you believe. I know you believe in Christ." Now he says, "Let me show you what that looks like." And he goes back to some of the great heroes of the Old Testament to illustrate for us what the life of faith looks like. And guess who he spends most time on in this book? No surprise, is it? Abraham! From Hebrews 11 verse 8 all the way down to verse 19, he unpacks, he shows a different aspect of Abraham living the life of faith. He spends more time in Hebrews 11 on Abraham than anyone else. Abraham, the father of the faithful, the father of believers, is the illustration of what it looks like to live the life of faith. So give attention with me as we read God's Word in Hebrews 11 verse 8, and before we do let's pray and ask for God's help and blessing.

Lord, this is Your Word. We ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it. We ask that You would enable us to understand and believe the truth which You serve us in Your Word, in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it:

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The Life of Faith means a life of Trusting God and Acting on His Promises

What does the life of faith look like? What should faith look like as you live it out in your own life? Hebrews 11 in general, and this story of Abraham in particular, provide for you an illustration of that. They show you what faith looks like in your life and they provide a positive encouragement to you to live the life of faith as well. And I want you to see several things in particular that the author of Hebrews teaches us about the life of faith. And the very first thing you'll see in verse 8. We learn this. Believers act on God's Word and their great life decisions are based upon His call. But the life of faith, the life of trusting God, is a life of acting on God's Word, of acting on His call to us. Notice in Hebrews 11 verse 8 that Abraham trusts God but he doesn't just trust God, he also obeys God. "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance." In other words, "God's effectual calling of Abraham resulted not only in Abraham's trusting God, in Abraham's whole-hearted believe in God; it led to his obedience. Those who trust, obey. When you trust, you obey. Or as the old song goes, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

And notice what Abraham is called to do here. Look at the very end of verse 8. "He went out, not knowing where he was going." Now that's faith. That is real trust in God to respond to God's call in obedience having no idea where you're going.

But my friends, every Christian is called upon to do the same thing, you understand? You remember the conversation between Jesus and the disciples and Thomas in particular when they were in the Upper Room on the night when Jesus was betrayed? It's recorded for us in John 14. We often read it at funerals. You remember, Jesus says to the disciples, "Don't be sad. Don't be troubled. Don't worry. Believe Me. You believe in God; believe also in Me." And then He says this to comfort them. "I'm going to prepare a place for you and you know here I'm going and you know the way." And I wonder what the reaction of the other disciples is but Thomas can't help but speak up. He says, "Lord, pardon me, but we have no idea where You're going and we have no idea how to get there!" And Jesus says, you remember, in response, "Thomas, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me." In other words Jesus is saying, "You do know the way, Thomas. I'm the way. And you don't need to know where you're going as long as you know the way. And I'm the way that you can get to where you're going, even though you don't know that country."

You see, we're called to do the same thing that Abraham did. One British theologian put it this way. "For the Christian, we are called to an unknown country with a well-known inhabitant." Heaven is to us an unknown country; the world to come, the age to come is an unknown country. We've never been there. We've never laid eyes on it. We have, just like Thomas, we can say, "Lord, we have no idea where that is, but we do know how to get there. His name is Jesus and we trust in Him." So what Abraham did in leaving his family ancestral land in Ur of the Chaldeans and making his way to the land of promise is a picture of what every believer does. We trust in God, we make our great life decisions based upon His Word and call, and we go to an unknown country and to a well-known inhabitant."

The Life of Faith means not looking for our Ultimate Fulfillment here

Secondly, what does the life of faith look like? Well, believers live the life of faith not looking for our ultimate fulfillment here. We are citizens there. We are strangers here. Abraham, you see, trusted God, and it meant that he would have to live life as a pilgrim, on the way to the promise that God had made to him. Look at verses 9 and 10. "By faith, he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land." And then listen to this next phrase - "living in tents." Now keep your finger there in verse 9 and look at what that's contrasted to. Verse 10 - "for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations." So Abraham goes to the Promised Land but when he gets there he doesn't build a big city and live in it. Interestingly, it's his nephew Lot who lives in a city, and if I remember the story right, it doesn't go very well. Abraham, meanwhile, lives like a nomad, a pilgrim in a tent, even in the Promised Land! Why? Because this world was not his home and that was not his final destination. He was looking for a city who has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Can you imagine how that would have resonated, by the way, to first century Jewish Christians living in Palestine? There they were, living in the land of promise, but it wasn't even their land anymore. The pagan, Romans were occupying that land. And you can imagine how they would have said, "Boy, this must be like what it felt for Abraham, to know that this is his land." And do you know how much of it he owned? Not one square inch until the end of his life and then you know what he did own at the end of his life? His burial plot, that's it, that's all wealthy Abraham ever owned, was his burial plot in the land of Canaan. But he lived by faith because he knew that "This is not where I get the promise fulfilled. I'm looking for the city which has foundations which architect and builder is God." And that, my friends, is directly relevant to how we live the Christian life because faith makes us strangers here and citizens there. We are at home there and that makes us aliens and exiles here.

And that is so important for the living of the Christian life. What is one of the great challenges of the church in our day? That the world is in the church; that the church is like the world; that the world is in our hearts and we're not distinct from the world. And this truth helps us to realize it's not the world that's going to supply us fulfillment. The world cannot fulfill the promises that God has made to us; only God can. And that allows us to stand apart from the world and not put our hopes in the world. We can minister to the world knowing that the world can't give us what we really need; only God can, and He will. And therefore we're able to care about and show Christian love to the world because we don't need the world to give us fulfillment. God is the one who will fulfill His promises. We live here as strangers and exiles and aliens. This world is not our home. That's what the life of faith looks like.

God's Promises to Believers are received by Faith

Third, look at verses 11 and 12. This is absolutely stunning. Here we learn that God's promises to believers are received by, they come about by, faith. This is a classic passage illustrating how you live by faith and not by sight. Look at verse 11. "By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive." Now my friends, we could do a sermon series on that phrase. "By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive." In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying that Sarah conceived by faith. She made Abraham the father of a multitude that no one can number by faith. She trusted the One who had made the promise, that even though she was past, well past the age of childbearing, that God was going to give her a son, and from that son was going to come a multitude of worshipers of God, of believers in the promise, that no one can number.

I want you to think about that, my friends. You know, Abraham was not always a spectacular husband. There may be some folks here today who could say a few things about their husbands' shortcomings, but I hope that there is no wife here today who could come up to me after the service and say, "Well my husband tried to give me away twice." Abraham did. And yet Abraham's reception of the promises of God was dependent upon his wife's faith. You think about that, sisters in Christ. Sarah was absolutely integral to Abraham receiving the promises of God. There is a story to tell in that. And what do we learn from that? Well we learn a lot of things but the thrust of this passage is clear. Sarah had faith in God and thus received the power of God to found the posterity of Abraham, the line of promise that would lead all the way to our Lord the Messiah, Jesus Christ. By faith, God accomplished His purposes in this world. We walk by faith, not by sight.

The Life of Faith alters your Self-Identity

Fourth, look at verses 14 to 16. Saving faith, what is the life of faith like? Well the life of faith changes the way you understand yourself. Saving faith alters your self-identity. It changes the way we view ourselves. This is connected to what is said in verses 9 and 10 but listen to what is emphasized here. "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." That's what I want you to focus on - the end of verse 13. "They acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." In other words, these who trusted in God - Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah - understood that believing in the promise was going to make them strangers and aliens here. Their whole identity was shaped by their faith in the promise of God, their understanding of what that meant. You see, faith in God leads to a self-estimation that we are strangers and aliens here. We don't put our ultimate hope in this life and in this world. And it is our very willingness to be strangers here that reflect the reality of God's grace in our hearts and assures us of future glory. While we breathe as believers, we always have hope. We are never without hope. But our hope is not here; our hope is there. We're never without hope but that hope is not here; it's hidden with Christ in God. And therefore we recognize that this is not home; that's home. This is not where my citizenship is. My citizenship, in Paul's words, is in heaven. So saving faith alters the way we look at ourselves. We understand that this world is not our home.

Saving Faith does not withhold its Dearest from God

And then last, if you'll look at verses 17 to 19 - what's the life of faith like? Well this may be the most challenging one. Saving faith does not withhold its dearest from God. saving faith trusts God's every word for good. By faith we can entrust anything to God. Look at verse 17. "By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son." Now you need to pause for a second. Did you hear that last phrase - "He was offering up his only begotten son"? Well some of you Bible scholars could say, "Didn't Abraham have another son?" Um-hmm. So why is Isaac being called his only begotten son? In fact, Isaac wasn't the big brother; Ishmael was! Ishmael was thirteen before Isaac was born!

Calling Isaac Abraham's "only begotten son" indicates how dear Isaac was to Abraham

Why is Isaac called Abraham's only begotten son? Well, I think there are a lot of possibilities to answer but two things come to mind. The first thing is this. Calling Isaac Abraham's only begotten son indicates how dear Isaac was to Abraham. God had explained to Abraham, in the wake of Ishmael's birth, that Isaac was going to be the son of promise. Isaac was going to be the one through whom the promise came, not Ishmael but Isaac. And therefore Isaac was exceedingly dear to Abraham. All his hopes and dreams were literally wrapped up in Isaac. That makes the scene of Genesis 22 all the more poignant. "Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him up on the mountain which I will show you." See, in this passage we're seeing something of the dearness of that sacrifice to Abraham.

The parallel between Isaac and Jesus Christ

Secondly, I think that the author of Hebrews says this about Isaac because of the parallel between Isaac and Jesus Christ. Think about it. God, because of His love for you, in His amazing grace, gave the dearest thing in this universe for you - His only begotten Son. That's how much the Father loves you. He gave the dearest thing in this universe in your place - His Son, His only begotten Son. Now when we see those two things together we understand what's being said here. The life of faith is a life in which we literally entrust everything to God, even the things that are most dear to us in this world. Why? Because of what we sang when we were singing just a few moments, because more, Jesus is more to us than anything else - "More than all in Him we find." There's nothing in this world more dear to us than Jesus, and therefore, we entrust everything, anything, to God. You see, saving faith says, "Lord, I trust You with everything. I trust You even with her. I trust You even with him. I trust You even with them." You think right now - what is most dear to you in this world? Do you trust him or her or them to Him? That's what saving faith does.

And Abraham, on that day that he set out for Moriah - I just love this. As a young man when I would read Genesis 22 I would think, "You know what, Abraham must think that God is going to provide a substitute when he gets to the top of Moriah because you remember what he says to his servants - 'I and the lad will go up and we will return.'" That's what he tells his servants down at the bottom of the mountain. "You just wait here because my son and I, we're going to go up that mountain together and we're going to come back down." And I can remember reading that as a boy and thinking, "Boy, Abraham, Abraham must have known that God was going to provide that ram in the thicket bush," and the author of Hebrews corrects me. He says, "No, actually, let me tell you what was going through Abraham's mind - 'Lord, even if You take my son's life, I believe that You can raise him from the dead if need be and give him back to me to fulfill Your promise.'" That's how much Abraham trusted God. If resurrection was necessary to fulfill that promise, well then Abraham knew his God could do it. That's what the life of faith looks like, my friends - as we're called to live it, trusting in Christ, just like Abraham did. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, our prayer is the prayer of a doubting disciple, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now would you take your bulletins in hand and turn over to the back and see the Getty and Townend hymn, "By Faith," and we'll sing it to God's praise.

Amen, receive God's blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace through Jesus Christ our Lord, both now and forevermore. Amen.

By Faith, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses... - Hebrews 11:20-29

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 as we continue our way through this great passage about faith. Every once in awhile we hear folks exhorting us to understand the Old Testament from a Christ-centered perspective - and that's good, and that's of course exactly what the author of Hebrews is going to do today, especially in the amazing verse 26 that we're going to read in this passage - but sometimes we hear people say, "If you expound the Old Testament in a Christ-centered way you will not use Old Testament characters as examples; that would be bad. That would be bad exposition and application. That would be a kind of moralism." Now the problem with that criticism of course is that the New Testament uses Old Testament characters as examples - both negative and positive. Think of Jesus saying to His disciples, "Remember Lot's wife." He's using an example, a bad example, of Lot's wife looking back when she should have been fleeing from the cities that were under judgment. And the apostle Paul uses an example of the children of Israel and their grumbling in the wilderness in 1 Corinthians 10. It's a bad example, and he says to the Corinthians, "Don't be like the Israelites grumbling in the wilderness."

But there are not just negative examples used in the New Testament; there are positive examples. And the passage that we're looking at today is going to give us positive examples. In fact, it's going to give us five positive examples. It's going to give us the example of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and then the children of Israel as a whole. Look at the passage before we read it. In verse 20 it will give the example of Isaac, verse 21 the example of Jacob, verse 22 the example of Joseph, then a long section, not surprising, from verse 23 to 28 about Moses, the major figure of the exodus, and then in verse 29 the example of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. The point is, the author of Hebrews, here in Hebrews 11 wants to motivate us by example. He's exhorting us to live a life of faith. And he says, "Let me show you some people who live by faith. Let me show you what that looks like. And I want you to be encouraged by their example." He's going to show us the deeds of the faithful, flowing from their faith, and he's going to recount those things to us as an example. Now all these examples are of imperfect people. In fact, the very examples he uses have some significant poignancy to them - we'll see that especially when we look at verses 20 to 22. Nevertheless, they trusted God; they acted on their faith. They believed God's promise and they lived by faith.

Now as we look at this passage today we could outline it in various ways, but here's how I want to approach it with you this morning. I want to look at three parts of this passage. First, verses 20 to 22, where we see a series of blessings and last words, and I want us to learn something about faith in God's promises from that section. Then in verses 23 to 28, I want to look at the life and ministry of Moses and I want us to learn something about faith in God's rewards from that passage. And then in verse 29, I want us to see a great test and trial that the children of Israel experienced as a people and I want us to learn about faith in God even in trials. So before we read God's Word let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We need Your Word, O Lord. We ask that by Your Holy Spirit we would both understand and believe it. We pray that You would cause our faith to be more focused on Jesus and more trusting of His purposes as well as more understanding of the glory of Your grace in the Gospel because of our studying of this passage together today. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word, hear it, beginning in Hebrews 11 verse 20:

"By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Living by faith means believing God's promises, valuing His rewards over the world, and trusting Him in trials. And the author of Hebrews explains that to us in this passage today, and I'd like to look at those three things with you for just a few moments.

FAITH BELIEVES IN GOD'S PROMISES

First, look with me at verses 20 to 23. Here we will learn that faith believes in God's promises, and of course the greatest of God's promises is the Gospel. But this passage presents us with three blessings or last words from Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And each of these blessings or last words shows us a trust in God's promises. The first one is rather surprising. Look at what it says. "By faith Isaac, invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau." Now you may not remember that story very well and you may be thinking, "Wait a minute. I thought Isaac blessed Jacob rather than Esau. Did the author of Hebrews get it wrong?" No, well if you go back to Genesis you will see that Isaac did indeed bless both Jacob and Esau and yet the great blessings that should have normally gone to the firstborn son, Esau, was given to Jacob. And the author of Hebrews is telling us that Isaac administered those blessings by faith. And you may say again, "But wait a minute. Wait a minute. I remember Genesis 27. Isaac didn't know that he was blessing Jacob with the great blessing rather than Esau because Jacob tricked him into it with the help of his mother. So how can the author of Hebrews be congratulating Isaac for his faith in blessing Jacob when he didn't know that he was blessing Jacob and when he was doing it against his will; he was doing it reluctantly and resistantly?" Well if you look at the story in Genesis 27, after Jacob has tricked Isaac - you remember he put on the wool and put on the smell of the scent of his brother Esau and had gone in and asked for the blessing and Isaac had given him the blessing. And then Isaac finds out when Esau comes in and says, "Father, bless me" and he says, "Wait a minute. I already have blessed you." And he says, "No you haven't. I've just gotten here." And you remember at the very last of that chapter, what does Isaac say? "I have blessed him and he will be blessed."

In other words, even in Genesis 27 there is a recognition on Isaac's part that it was God's purpose for Jacob to be blessed. And even though he had been tricked into blessing Jacob, Jacob would indeed receive the great blessing, because in God's providence it had been given to him. And the author of Hebrews says by faith Isaac understood that. Now that, by the way, ought to be an encouragement to you, because sometimes we think when we're in the midst of trials we don't feel very brave and we don't feel like we're trusting. Have you ever said to a friend who's going through something hard, have you ever encouraged them by saying, "You are very brave. I've been watching you go through this and I can see your trust in the Lord"? And have they ever said something back to you like this, "Well I don't feel very brave and I really feel like I'm struggling to trust the Lord right now"? And do you, having felt like that, do you feel a little bit distant from the heroes of faith that are being mentioned here in Hebrews 11? Well let me introduce you to a hero of faith, Isaac, who didn't want to do what the Lord had appointed. And yet in the end, the author of Hebrews can say, "Isaac blessed Jacob by faith." The Lord got it done; through Isaac's reluctance and resistance, He got it done, and in the end Isaac had to acknowledge that God's promise has found its resting place on the right son.

And then look at verse 21. There's the story of Jacob, and boy isn't it poignant in light of what Jacob pulled on Isaac! "By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff." This is a reference to the story that is recorded in Genesis 48 of Jacob, right before he dies, blessing Joseph's sons. And the very mention of that ought to cause your heart to well up to fullness. Here's Jacob, who stole his brother's blessing and birthright and had to live far away from him for many years, and guess what happens to Jacob's son, Joseph, his favorite son? He's sold by his brothers into slavery and Jacob has to endure living most of the years of his life apart from his son, Joseph. And yet in God's kind providence, at the very end, he gets to be reunited with Joseph to see his dear son again and even to see his grandchildren by Joseph. And he sees that Joseph has two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh. And do you remember in Genesis 48 how Jacob blesses them? He crosses his arms and he gives the blessing to Ephraim that was supposed to go to Manasseh and the blessing that was supposed to go to Manasseh to Ephraim. You can see how the Lord has worked in the heart and life of Jacob. Jacob is sick, he's hard headed, he's a deceiver and a usurper, but the Lord, in His own time, has gotten to his heart and he understands that the Lord chooses whom He will choose. He doesn't necessarily follow the predilections of a father who has a particular love for a child. The Lord blesses who He blesses, and so he reverses those blessings. And so we see again that Jacob trusts God's promise and he worships even in the giving of that blessing.

You know, blessings are very, very significant in the Hebrew culture and of course in the Old Testament world. We have a hard time understanding that ourselves today because we don't necessarily do things like this. When I was in Scotland, in the late 1980's, I was at Buccleuch Greyfriars Free Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, and Kent Compton, a young, recently graduated seminary, was preaching the sermon that day. And I wanted to encourage Kent on the occasion of preaching his first sermon so I went up to him at the door of the church and I said, "Kent, it was an excellent exposition today. I was blessed by your ministry of the Word." And before we could finish our conversation, Professor McIntosh came up. Now I had been in Professor McIntosh 's home in both Edinburgh and in the Black Isle a number of years before, I knew Professor McIntosh , but he was rather advanced in age and his eyesight wasn't very good. And he came up intending to speak to Kent Compton who had just preached the sermon, but instead, he grabbed my hand, with both of his hands, and he looked me in the face as best as he could and he said, "I knew your father many years ago in Canada." And I said, "Professor McIntosh , my daddy is a printer from Greenville, South Carolina and I don't think he's ever even been to Canada!" And he looked confused but undeterred! And he continued to tell me of his special relationship with my father! Well he was talking about Kent Compton's father who was a minister in Canada and Professor McIntosh had been in his home before. And nothing that I could tell Professor McIntosh could convince him that I was not the son of his friend from Canada.

And so finally, exasperated, he quit the conversation, he took his hands off of my hand, he lifted them both up in the air, and he said, "The Lord bless thee and keep thee! The Lord make His face to shine upon thee! The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace!" And I turned to Kent and I said, "Kent, I think I've stolen your blessing!" because Professor McIntosh meant that! I have apologized to Kent Compton many times over the years. He ministers in Prince Edward Island now. But Professor McIntosh meant to deliver a blessing on the new ministry of this son of an old friend. I've often wondered if the blessing in my ministry was because Professor McIntosh accidently gave the blessing to me! But these things are very, very significant in the Hebrew culture and they indicate that these men believed in the power of God's promise to Abraham and they knew that the one who receives the power of God's promise to Abraham is going to be blessed indeed. And so of course the New Testament tells us that the thing that is promised in the covenant of grace with Abraham is what? The Holy Spirit, who causes us to be born again, who regenerates us, who gives us new life, and with it all the blessings that God had promised to Abraham, received by faith. And so the great promise of the promises of God to Abraham is the Gospel.

Well there's one more interesting passage here, isn't there? Verse 22 - here we're told about the final words of Joseph. "By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones." In other words, Joseph, before he died, tells his brothers and his family, "One day," just like the choir just sang, "One day we're going back to Canaan, the Promised Land. I believe God's promise to Abraham that though we are going to sojourn here for four hundred years in the land of Goshen, in the land of Egypt, yet God is going to bring us out of the house of bondage, out of the house of slavery, and back into the land that He promised to Abraham." And so my friends what does Joseph tell them that they have to do? "When that day comes, you gather my bones up in the box and you take them back to the land of Canaan because I know that the Lord is going to take us there." Now what is all of that? In each of those blessings and in those last words you see men who believe in the promises of God. That's what faith is. Faith is believing the promises of God. Joseph is going to die before he sees the promise of God fulfilled to take the children of Israel back to Canaan but what does he say? "You take my bones with you because I know that God is going to fulfill His promise."

FAITH VALUES CHRIST REPROACH MORE THAN THE WORLD'S REWARD

What does it mean to live by faith? First, it means to believe His promises, to trust the promises of God. That's what we learn in verses 20 to 22. Second, I want you to see what we learn in verses 23 to 28. Here the life and ministry of Moses is highlighted and the author tells us that it was all based on faith. What do we learn? We learn that faith listens to God's commands over the world's instructions, it values Christ's reproach more than the world's rewards, and it trusts in the provision of His blood. "By faith," verse 23, "Moses, when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents." Isn't it interesting that this account tells us that Moses was born into a believing family? They believed God rather than Pharaoh and that's why Moses lived. We could literally say that Moses was saved by the faith of his parents. He would have been killed with the other Hebrew children who were under the wicked edict of Pharaoh, but his parents believed God instead of knuckling under the edict of Pharaoh and so they hid him, and therefore he was delivered; he lived.

And then we read, "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be caused the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." In other words, Moses identified with the children of Israel, not with the children of Egypt; he identified with the slaves who were Hebrews, not with the king's household where he had been reared. Then verse 26, these amazing words. "He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt." Doesn't that sound like something the apostle Paul would say about himself? "I considered these things less than nothing in comparison with knowing Christ." And here we're told that Moses considered all the treasures of Egypt not to be compared with the privilege of bearing the reproach of Christ.

Listen to what Donald Guthrie says about this passage. "The author of Hebrews tells us here that all the sufferings of God's people are in some way linked with sufferings on behalf of the Messiah, the perfect representative of God. All that Moses suffered was in the cause of God's plan of salvation for His people, culminating in the abuse that was heaped on Christ Himself of which the writer is acutely conscious throughout this epistle." And Moses identifies himself with God's people and we're told that he considered the reproach of Christ better than anything that the world could give him. In other words, Moses listens to God's Word over the world's edicts, he values Christ's reproach over the world's rewards, and he trusts in the provision of His blood.

Friends, this something that we all struggle with today. More and more, Christians, churchgoing Christians, want the world to like us. We want the world to think well of us and we do not want to bear the reproach of Christ in the eyes of the world. And so we do what we can to cozy up to the world so that we can be friends with the world. And this passage is telling us that's not how Moses thought. Moses wanted to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant," from Jesus, not from the world. And so the author of Hebrews was saying to his congregation and to us, "Seek the reward of Christ. It's better than the reward of the world. In fact, the reproach of Christ is better than the rewards of this world." What do we learn from this? We learn that faith values the rewards of Christ above the rewards of this world. Faith trusts in God's promises; faith values the rewards that only God can give through Christ.

FAITH BELIEVES IN GOD'S PROVIDENCE EVEN TESTING AND TRIALS

And then third, look at verse 29. Here we see that faith believes in God's providence even in testings and trials. "By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned." The author of Hebrews is telling us that the Red Sea crossing was by faith. Now we know how that story plays out and so we may glibly say, "Well they crossed the Red Sea by faith," but can you imagine what it would have been like to be there? You know Ralph and I were talking about the passage in Jeremiah 39 this morning about the fall of Jerusalem and Ralph just said in passing to me, "You know, none of them would have suspected that it was a good thing that Jerusalem fall, that God had a plan in that." And my friends, if we had been standing between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army before the Sea parted, we would not have thought it was a good thing! We would have not thought it was a good thing to have the Egyptian army bearing down on us with a big body of water in front of us! Their faith was tested in that. They were presented with a trial. And what did they do? They believed and they took the first step and another and another, and by faith, they crossed that Sea and then the Egyptians who followed them were drowned. What's the point? Faith trusts God in trial.

And just like Ralph said about Jeremiah, God delivers those who trust in Him. They were delivered by the Lord. You see, the author of Hebrews is giving us an example of what faith looks like, how it works. Faith trusts God's promises, faith values God's blessings over the blessings of the world, and faith trusts God even in trial. So if you want to know what faith looks like you can look back to Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and the children of Israel. Were they perfect? No they were not. Did they always trust the Lord like they should? No they didn't. but however feebly, they believed and they trusted and the Lord honored that, because it is not the quality of our faith that saves us, it is the object of our faith - Jesus, God, God's Word, God's promise, His Gospel. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Grant us, we pray, by Your Holy Spirit, faith, and that we may live by it. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Now will you take your hymnals in hand and turn with me to number 506, "As When the Hebrew Prophet Raised" and we'll sing what is effectively John 3 together.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The World was Not Worthy of Them - Hebrews 11:30-40

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. We're going to be looking at verses 30 to 40 this morning as we continue our way through this book and as we continue our way through this great chapter of faith. The author of Hebrews has been explaining to us that the Christian life must be lived by faith. And in the passage today, he is going to show us five ways that that is so. And I'd like to go ahead and point those out to you so that as we read through the passage together you can be alerted to them and on the lookout for them.

First, look at verse 30, then 31, then verses 32 to 34, verses 35 to 38, and verses 39 to 40. Those are the five different ways that he teaches us about faith. Let me tell you what to look for. In verse 30, he tells us that faith means believing God when the odds look impossible. Second, in verse 31, he tells us that faith means believing God when you cannot imagine that He loves you. Third, look at verses 32 to 34, he tells us that believing God is the key ingredient to every real spiritual achievement in this life. In verses 35 to 38, you'll see a fourth thing, that believing God is also the key to enduring the trials and tribulations of this life. And then finally, in verse 39 and 40, he tells you that believing God is not something that you do at the beginning of the Christian life and then you're done with it. No, believing God is going to be necessary for us all the way up to our final breath. So be on the lookout for those five things as we read from God's Word this morning. And before we read, let's ask for His help and blessing in prayer.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We need it more than food, for we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Heavenly Father, we need Your Holy Spirit both to understand and embrace this Word, so teach us by Your Spirit the truth which we will now read here and study. And grant, O God, that we would indeed heed and hear and believe and trust. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 11 verse 30:

"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets - who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated - of whom the world was not worthy - wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

"Without faith it is impossible to please God." This whole chapter is virtually an exposition of that truth. And if that truth is true, and it is, it's also true that without faith it's impossible to live the Christian life. And here, the author of Hebrews is explaining to us why faith is essential to the living of the Christian life and he's doing that by showing us five ways that faith is essential to the living of the Christian life. So I'd like to look at that with you this morning for a few moments.

I. Faith believes God can do the impossible

First, look in verse 30. Here we learn that faith believes that God can do the impossible. You remember the story. The children of Israel had been unbelieving in the wilderness for forty years. A whole generation had been judged for unbelief; but now a believing generation is being brought into the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, and guess what happens? At the very outset, as they come into their land, their faith is tested! One of the great tests is when they get to the great fortified city of Jericho. How are they going to take it? How is God going to deliver His people? How are they going to capture the Canaanites? And the word is given from God to Joshua and Joshua gives instruction to the people. Can you imagine how they would have responded when they came to Joshua and said, "Well Joshua, what's the plan?" "We're going to walk around the city for seven days and blow trumpets." "Hmmm…okay! That sounds like a good plan!" That plan made no sense, humanly speaking! Surely there's a battle plan. Surely there's some sneaky strategy that will be deployed to allow the people to gain the upper hand from a military perspective. But no, they're going to walk around that city for seven days and they're going to blow trumpets and God is going to bring the walls of that city down. They will learn there that faith believes that God can do the impossible.

And my friends, we have to learn that lesson ourselves today. When Anne and I were married we wanted children from the very beginning but we waited many long years before we were able to have children. And when we went to the University of Mississippi Medical Center to seek treatment for infertility, they were wonderful to us but the fertility doctor looked us in the eye and said, "My friends, if you want to make sure that you have something to show for your money, you would be far better to buy a used pickup truck and park it in your driveway and look at it, because I would give you less than a 2% chance of ever having children." Well there are two of them sitting up in the gallery this morning.

I'll never forget in the fall afternoon when Douglas Kelly showed up at our door at our apartment in Woodmoor in Clinton and I said, "Well Dr. Kelly, what a surprise. What brings you here today?" "I'm here to pray for you to have children." And he pulls out a jar of anointing oil and just like our elders do when we gather to pray with the sick, he came in and anointed us, and one year later Sarah Kennedy was born. Not long ago, our elders prayed for Pete and Nan Whitney who had longed to have children and God opened her womb and gave Pete and Nan a beautiful baby. It doesn't always work that way, you understand, but God, by faith, does the impossible. Some of you today have given up hope that you'll ever be whole again. You don't think it can happen in this world. Believe, because faith believes that God can do the impossible.

II. Faith means believing God when you cannot imagine that He loves you

Secondly, one of my favorite verses in the entire New Testament is verse 31. Do you see it? "By faith Rahab, the harlot" - Rahab, the prostitute. Now just meditate on this for just a second friends. Rahab is only mentioned twice in the New Testament, here and in James. In both places, she is identified as a prostitute. But in both places she is held in high esteem by the writer of Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and she is given as an example for those who believe. And listen to what we hear. "By faith Rahab, the harlot, did not perish along with those who were disobedient." Rahab identified herself with God and with His people rather than with her own unbelieving people and we learn in that that no one is excluded who trusts in God - even a Canaanite prostitute. Faith admits absolutely everyone into the privileges of the people of God. Rahab chose God and His people over everything that she had known, and God blessed her and saved her. And listen to this - made her the grandmother of King David; and even more importantly, the grandmother of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I want you to take this in for just a few moments because it's absolutely astonishing the reach of God's grace. Have you pictured it, mothers? That day when your son tells you that he's bringing home a pretty young girl that he wants you to meet. And you sit down to have a cup of tea and to talk with her and you say, "Well, are you in Chi O? Tri Delt? DG?" And she shakes her head and she says, "No, I was a prostitute in Memphis." Do you swallow your teacup? Don't you see, the grace of God reaches out to Rahab the prostitute and completely changes her life and brings her into all the privileges of the sons and daughters of the Most High. You may be sitting here this morning and you think that what your life has been and what you have done puts you beyond the reach of the grace of God in the Gospel. Oh, my friend, you have no idea. You have no idea how far, how powerful that grace is, and it is received by faith. By faith, Rahab shows us that absolutely anyone can receive the blessings which are purchased for us in Jesus Christ.

III. Believing God is the key ingredient to every real spiritual achievement in this life

And then there's a third thing, isn't there, in this passage. Look at verses 32 to 34. Here we see that faith is essential to every spiritual accomplishment. All sorts of things are listed in this passage - an inventory of exploits that date from the days of the judges and from the early monarchy. There are attainments, there are deliverances, there are achievements; there are conquered kingdoms, there's the establishment of justice, there's the inheriting of promises; there's the stopping of lion's mouths and the quenching of fire and the sparing from violent death; exercising strength in weakness, being powerful in battle, putting the enemy to run. And in all of the above instances, guess what the author of Hebrews says the key ingredient is? Faith. Not military skill, not even courage, but faith. Trusting dependence on God Most High. And so we learn that faith is essential to every true spiritual accomplishment in the Christian life. How do we live? By faith! How do we serve? By faith!

IV. Believing God is also the key to enduring the trials and tribulations of this life

And then you see verses 35 to 38. Here we now see a catalog of things that the people of God endured. This life, as John Newton reminds us, is filled with "many dangers, toils, and snares." As the Puritans used to say, "with losses and crosses." Every Christian life has trials. How do you get by that? How do you endure that? How do you survive that? Faith enables us to endure every trial and tribulation. It is by faith that we endure those trials.

V. Believing God is necessary for us all the way up to our final breath.

And then finally there is this word in verses 39 and 40. We're never done with faith. Faith is necessary to the very end, all the way to the resurrection. All of these, we learn in verse 39, gained approval through their faith. They received commendation through faith, but they didn't receive what was promised. In other words, what they were ultimately looking for they did not fully experience in this life. They could only have it at the great and final resurrection at the second coming of the Son of God. Their ultimate hopes depended upon that. They would not, in this life, receive the ultimate satisfaction of their desires. And what does that mean? It means that they had to keep on believing until their last breath. We live in this world all the way up to the end by faith. Only at the second coming and the inauguration of eternity will faith turn into sight. Until then, we live by faith.

And that's what the author of Hebrews is teaching us today. How do you live the Christian life? By faith. Faith that believes that God can do the impossible. Faith that can reach anyone. Faith that depends upon God for whatever we're going to achieve. Faith that gets you through your trials. Faith that goes on until the very end. That's how you live the Christian life. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we bow before You today and we thank You for Your Word. We ask that You would apply it to our hearts and lives. We pray, Heavenly Father, that You would grant us, by the Holy Spirit, to believe to the very end, to the saving of our souls and to the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

He Disciplines Us for Our Good - Hebrews 12:1-3

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12.We're going to be looking at the first three verses this morning and especially on the theme, "Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus."This whole passage is about living the Christian life, and I want to say just a couple of things about that by way of introduction. This passage is not telling you how you come to be right with God. The Bible explains to us that the way that we come to be right with God is through the person and work of Jesus Christ - Christ taking our sins upon Himself and our trusting and resting, receiving Him alone for our salvation as He is offered in the Gospel. When we address the issue of the Christian life, how you live the Christian life in the New Testament, it is not about how we get God to love us and accept us by our performance. God, in His love and kindness and grace has accepted us in Jesus Christ as we trust in Him, as we have faith in Him. The issue of Christian sanctification in the New Testament is - having been graciously accepted by God, how shall we then live?And this passage is about how you live the Christian life.

Secondly, I want you to note it really is an extension of what we have already been studying in Hebrews chapter 11.You know if I could outline the book of Hebrews so far - we've been in it for a while, so you may have forgotten all the way back to Hebrews chapter 1 - let me just give you a three-point outline. Jesus is better. Don't stop believing. Here are people who walked with God by faith and they crossed the finish line - be encouraged by their example. There's my outline of the book of Hebrews. Jesus is better. I mean the first ten chapters, didn't they, over and over emphasize that Jesus is the better Savior. And then we're encouraged all along the way - don't stop believing. Don't stop putting your faith, don't stop putting your trust in Christ. That message comes over and over again, loud and clear. And then finally in Hebrews 11, an example, in fact several examples are given to you from Old Testament saints and maybe even the intertestamental period and into the time of the New Testament, of people who believed, they trusted God, and they continued to believe right until the end of their lives. And they are given to us as examples, as encouragement. So there's sort of the outline of the book of Hebrews.

But Hebrews 11 really doesn't end with verse 40, does it?You know those chapter divisions were put in a long time after the New Testament was written and the first three verses, at least, of Hebrews chapter 12 are almost the culmination of what has been said in Hebrews 11.All these great examples have been given of Moses and Abraham; now he's going to point us to Jesus!He's going to say, "Let me give you another encouragement from somebody's example. Let me tell you about Jesus."And he does that especially in verses 2 and 3.So there's a sense in which, even though there's a chapter division, this is actually the culminating point of these examples that he has been giving already in Hebrews chapter 11.So though we've bid a fond farewell to Hebrews 11 last week, we're really on the same theme. It's the culmination; it's the climax of that theme, as he points us to Jesus Christ.

Now in this passage, he is teaching us about how to live the Christian life. And whenever I come across passages in the New Testament that are directly telling me how to live the Christian life, I want to tell you, I perk up because I need all the help I can get. I really do. He's not giving us simple, simplistic formulaic exhortations. You know, "Six Ways to Have Success in the Christian Life."It's nothing like that. But he is telling us some things that are decisive for growing in grace and for living in Christian joy in this life. And I want you to be on the lookout for those things.

First, if you'll look at verse 1, you will see the word, "lay aside."The first thing that he tells us to do is to lay certain things aside. That's absolutely key to living the Christian life - divesting yourself of certain things. So be on the lookout for that.

Second, notice also at the end of verse 1, he says, "run."In other words, he views the Christian life not as something that is passive but something that we have to throw ourselves into. And the metaphors here are going to be very athletic. You almost feel like you're in a passage in the apostle Paul where he's using wrestling as a metaphor or long-distance running as a metaphor. And that is precisely the athletic metaphor here. So guys, if you like sports, the author of Hebrews is giving you a great athletic metaphor in the first three verses of Hebrews chapter 12 for living the Christian life. And it's long-distance running that he's appealing to.

Third, if you'll look at verse 2, the next word you'll see is, "looking to Jesus."Now that's not an imperative, "Look to Jesus;" it actually is a word that tells you how you run. You run looking to Jesus. Now that metaphor's a little bit mixed. He's telling you to run looking up, which is maybe not good advice for night time marathon runners, but it's really good advice for living the Christian life. So first, "lay aside," then, "run," then, "looking to Jesus," or "look to Jesus."

And then finally look at verse 3.He's going to tell you to, "consider him."Consider who?Consider Jesus.

Now be on the lookout for that, and let me tell you one more thing. Those are the four things that we're going to concentrate on in this passage. Before you even get through the first part of the first sentence, look back in verse 1.He has given you a specific context in which you are to understand yourself in living the Christian life. And the picture is the picture of a great arena filled with your forbearers in the faith who are cheering you on. You are now rounding the final bend and ending the ultra-marathon and the stadium is filled with your encouragers, like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Paul and Jesus, encouraging you on to cross the finish line. It's an encouraging metaphor. Just hold that in the back of your mind because I want to say a few words about it before we're done today.

Before we read God's Word, let pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word; we need it. We need encouragement to live the Christian life which is so often a long and arduous obedience in the same direction with the interruptions of trials and tribulations and wanderings. And we are prone to wander, Lord. We feel it. And so we ask that You would not only seal our hearts but that You would also guide us by Your Holy Spirit and energize us so that we finish the race. Help us even as we study this passage today to be encouraged in living the Christian life. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 12 verse 1:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

An Energizing Picture of Encouragement

The author of Hebrews is telling us to fix our eyes on Jesus and to run for the prize. To live the Christian life you must fix your eyes on Jesus and prepare for a long-distance run. The Christian life will not be lived by accident. You will not grow in godliness as an accident. It is something that is deliberate. And the author of Hebrews is here to teach us several things that are essential to living that Christian life. And I want to look at them with you this morning. But before we even get to those four, glorious aspects that I've already drawn to your attention, I want you to see the context for this. Look at the very first phrase of verse 1 - "since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses."This is a picture of a host of your friends and forbearers in the faith, urging you on. We've actually sung about this already in Philip Doddridge's text, "Awake, My Soul, Stretch Every Nerve."And I want you to feel the encouragement that is meant by that. When he tells you about this cloud of witnesses that are watching you and urging you on in the Christian life, he does not mean to conjure up in your hearts worry, as if this is maybe the father or mother who you've never ever been able to please and they're sort of looking down on you with disapprobation saying, "Well, there she goes again, messing up."Nor is this Matilda from the ladies garden club whose face looks like she has just taken a deep draft from a bucket of sardines as she expresses her disapproval of you in whatever aspect of life you have fallen short in her estimation. This is an encouraging picture. This is like the encouragement that you get from a friend who knows your weaknesses but knows your faults but has always been for you. And whenever, by God's grace, you have been able to make a step forward in faith, that friend has been there to say, "I'm so proud of you. I thank God for you. I'm so glad you're my friend. Keep on going; don't give up."It's a glorious, energizing metaphor.

I can remember as a high school football player we had a running back on the team who was being recruited by SEC schools and on one occasion in the middle of practice we looked out and on the sidelines was Vince Dooley, the legendary coach at the University of Georgia. Now he was not there to look at me or any of the rest of us. None of us had aspirations for playing SEC football, I assure you, but he was there looking at our friend. And all of us, we started blocking with a little bit more crispness, we started tackling with a little more aggression, because Vince Dooley was on the sidelines watching and we wanted to be at our best!That's the kind of energizing picture that's being shared with us here. Look who's watching!You've got an arena full of the people who most want you to success and there in the midst of Abraham and Isaac and Moses and Elijah is Jesus and He's got His eyes fixed on you and He wants you to cross the finish line.

Maybe you've had that experience when you were playing as a musician in some ensemble and the composer who wrote the piece of music that you're singing or playing is there in the audience and you just want to do it just a little better because he's there. This is the energizing picture that's being painted for us in the very first part of verse 1.It's there to encourage you on, not to make you wonder, "Oh no, are they looking down on me and thinking that I'm messing up?" but to energize you to stretch every nerve.

I. Lay Aside Every Obstacle

Now in light of that context, what does the author of Hebrews say?Four things. The first thing he says - and this is interesting that he starts out this way - the first thing that he says is that if you are going to live the Christian life there are some things you're going to have to lay aside. In that positive environment of the first part of verse 1, the first thing he says is negative!If you're going to live the Christian life there are some things you're going to have to lay aside. Why does he say that?Because he knows that part of the Christian life is recognizing the obstacles. And I love what he says that we need to lay aside. Look at verse 1."Lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely."My big obstacles in living the Christian life are not out there; they're in here. And it's interesting to me that he says not only to lay aside sin, though he does say that, he says to lay aside every weight. In other words, he's talking about both hindrances and sin. There are some things that are perfectly good in and of themselves which are not helpful in living the Christian life. And so he draws attention to both laying aside sin and hindrances.

The Hindrance of Small, Besetting Sins

Think of it, my friends. So often in the Christian life smaller, besetting sins get us, rather than the bigger, headline sins. I have a friend who was the president of a large evangelical institution in the Midwest in the United States - brilliant scholar, terrific public speaker and communicator, excellent leader, but he had an anger problem and he would explode with his senior staff in anger. And eventually he was fired by his board of trustees because of his anger problem. He didn't commit adultery, he didn't murder anybody, he didn't embezzle or misuse funds; he had a temper that was out of control and it cost him his job. And I'm glad to say that he is serving fruitfully and faithfully in leadership again but it has been a long, hard road because of an anger problem of all things. I've seen marriages end not because of adultery or abuse but simply because of laziness or dishonesty. The author of Hebrews is saying if you're going to live the Christian life there are some sins that you're going to have to set aside and there are hindrances that you're going to have to set aside.

The Hindrance of Good and Right Desires

And again, I love that emphasis here because there are desires that we can have that can actually undermine our ability to live the Christian life - good desires, desires for good things. You may long for a husband or a wife and God hasn't seen fit to give that to you. Or you may long for a better relationship with your husband or wife. Or you may wish that your husband or wife was improved. Or you may wish for children or that your children were walking with the Lord. Or for a vocation where you could, with more clarity, serve the Lord and His kingdom. Or for family relations that are better. And a thousand other legitimate things. And those things may so consume you when you do not have them that you are unable, with a single eye, to pursue the goal, the prize - Christ. And if so, those things are hindrances that have to be laid aside to live the Christian life. And that's the first thing that the author of Hebrews says. If you want to live the Christian life there are some things that are just going to have to be laid aside.

II. Running the Race with Endurance

Second, notice he says, "run."And I love that he doesn't just say, "run."Look at the end of verse 1."Let us run with endurance the race."Now it is clear, if you look at the end of verse 1 and look at the end of verse 3, "so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted," that was sports lingo from the first century. Growing weary and fainthearted was the word that was used for long-distance athletes who conked out before they finished the race. They couldn't make it to the finish line because they were so exhausted. And so the metaphor here is of a distance race. And that is so important as we contemplate the Christian life. Why is he telling us this?Because if we don't realize the challenge of living the Christian life, our hopes will be distorted by unrealistic expectations. One of the things I love about this passage is it's filled with hope and encouragement but it's utterly realistic. The big obstacles that we face in living the Christian life?Not out there; in here!The Christian life, easy-peasy?No!It's an endurance race. The author of Hebrews is telling us that we need to be realistic with just how great a challenge the Christian life is. We need to be ready in our minds to run it the whole distance.

The Utterly Realistic Portrayal of Scripture

I was talking with some of the elders just in the last two weeks about the movement that erupted in the 1970's - rediscovering reformed theology and the doctrines of grace. And many of you know it and were caught up in it yourself. I was a teenager then; I remember the books proliferating. I remember going to conferences even as a teenager and hearing the glories of classic reformation theology - a high view of God, a high view of Scripture, a high view of grace. But along with that eruption of rich, helpful truth in writing and in preaching, came some unrealistic expectations, and very frankly, a little bit of arrogance. You know there was the idea that those of us who had been exposed to this theology of grace, we were "the fellowship of the arrived."You know, we had our act together. The rest of you guys out there; we're not sure. And we were going to go out and conquer the world. We had a world view. We had good theology. We understood sanctification

In fact I was going back just this last week and I saw a quote from one of the books that emerged in those days and this is how it reads."The man who is being progressively sanctified will inescapably sanctify his home, school, politics, economics, science, and all things else by understanding and interpreting all things in terms of the Word of God."Well my friends, it's a good thing to want to sanctify everything by the Word of God, it's a good thing to have an aspiration to see all things brought under the lordship of Christ, but do you hear the hubris in that statement?Like, "We're going to follow five easy steps and we've got it done."And the Christian life isn't that way. There are many dangers, toils, and snares before we come home. The picture that's being painted in this passage is one of hard, obstacle-filled, endurance race.

The Christian Life: Running the Long Haul

Kent Hughes tells the story of a man that, I think, none of you have ever heard of. His name was Bill Broadhurst and he ran the 10,000 meter Pepsi Challenge in Omaha, Nebraska in 1981.Pretty sure that none of you have ever heard of that or him, but he's the perfect illustration of this point. Bill Broadhurst, in 1971, had a brain aneurism and the doctors saved his life. But in the course of the surgery that saved his life he was paralyzed on the left side of his body. For ten years he labored to learn to walk again and then to be able to jog. And in July of 1981 he was lined up along with 1,200 other runners at the Pepsi Challenge 10,000 meter run in Omaha, Nebraska. Now along with them was Bill Rodgers. Some of you may know the name, Bill Rodgers. Bill Rodgers won the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon four times, set the record for the Boston Marathon in two hours and nine minutes in 1975.And there he was in the race with Bill Rodgers. Bill Rodgers, I'm not sure what his time was when he finished, but a lot of people finished that 10,000 meter run in thirty minutes or less. Bill Broadhurst finished that run in two hours and thirty minutes - painful, loafing step all the way. You can imagine what that must have felt like physically, but he finished. And at the finish line waiting for him was Bill Rodgers, the New York City Marathon, Boston Marathon winner, who took his gold medal off and put it on Bill Broadhurst when he crossed the line.

Now I was told ,by the way, after the service by one of our members that back in the '70's, I don't know whether they do it now, at the Boston Marathon it is typical at the press conference for the winner and the person who has finished last to be interviewed by the press. And I wonder if Bill Rodgers got the idea of doing this because of his experience at the Boston Marathon. But it's a beautiful picture, isn't it?Rodgers was honoring the man who had labored two and a half hours to just get across the finish line. And in fact when he was interviewed at the Boston Marathon years earlier he would say, "You shouldn't be interviewing me; you should be interviewing this guy who took eight hours to finish!Can you imagine running for eight hours?"Well my friends, that's the picture of the Christian life. It's not unabated success; onward and upward!No obstacles; victory after victory!It's a long-distance run. It's a long obedience in the same direction with many dangers, toils, and snares along the way.

You know this morning, I'm not going to embarrass her, this morning one of your fellow members completed sixty-five years of teaching children's Sunday School at First Presbyterian Church. She's sitting in this room right now. My friends, that's a long obedience in the same direction. That's what the author of Hebrews is talking about. Just yesterday afternoon as I was preparing for the wedding last night, I ran across a column in the newspaper about a couple who had been married for seventy-two years and this week they died together, in the hospital, one hour apart from one another holding hands. When you start out in the Christian life, are you ready for the long haul?Or do you think it's just going to be a short burst and follow through your four principles and everything is going to be great?The author of Hebrews is so helpful in his realism here. You've got to be ready to run the race. And can I just say that there is nothing passive about that metaphor. There is absolutely nothing passive about that metaphor. If you're going to live the Christian life it's going to be done deliberately and with endurance.

III. "Looking unto Jesus"

Third, look at verse 2 - "looking unto Jesus."Now here, the author of Hebrews is asking us to reorient our whole life to Jesus. We're to run with endurance, we're not to grow weary and fainthearted, but we're to look to Jesus. And notice what's said here. Twice in this passage, in verse 2 and 3, we're told that Jesus endured. In verse 2 that He endured the cross; in verse 3 that He endured the hostility of sinners. So notice he asks you to endure but he says God never asks you to do what He has not already done before you. Jesus has already endured, so look to Jesus. And notice especially what he says about Jesus in verse 2."Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame."Why?How?Because of what?Well look at the first part of the verse."Because of the joy that was set before him."How did Jesus endure the cross?Because He looked at the joy that was set before Him. He says, "How are you going to endure the race?Because you're going to look to Jesus who is the joy set before you!"

Ultimate Satisfaction apart from God does not exist

My friends, this is one of the reasons why we have to lay aside the hindrances of good but not ultimate desires, because God has not ordained that you will have full satisfaction of your desires apart from Him. Satisfaction apart from God does not exist. And so unless your eyes are fixed on Jesus - if they're fixed on anything lower than that you will be disappointed in this life. Jesus is our treasure. Jesus is our reward. Jesus is our satisfaction. Jesus is our fulfillment.

One of the elders stopped me after the early service and said that he has been reading a book written in 1901 on the history of Spain. Now you're thinking, "What good is going to come out of this book?"Listen to this quote."The annals of happiness are brief in this life."That's the quote. Boy, that's a keeper."The annals of happiness are brief in this life."If you're looking for happiness in this life apart from Jesus, apart from God, that happiness will be ephemeral, it will be fleeting. But if we live this life looking to Jesus we will never be disappointed because no one can take that away from you, no one.

IV. Reflect on the Experience of Jesus

Fourth and finally, look at verse 3."Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself."He asks you to reflect on the experience of Jesus. He's saying, "Don't let the hostility of the world break down your hope and your faith."And he says, "Remember, your Jesus was not number one on the Top 40 charts!He was hated and killed by His contemporaries. Sinners were filled with hostility toward Him, so don't you be discouraged by hostility from this world."This is a very important lesson for us in this day and time. My friends, we are all entering into a new era of our relationship with our culture. Thirty, forty, fifty years ago, the vestiges of a Christian outlook on this world still pervaded this society. Today that is rapidly disappearing. You are now suspected or even publically accused of being hate mongers simply because you believe the Bible. Simply for believing what the Bible teaches about marriage, about the relationships between men and women, you are viewed as a hate group. Some of you will lose your jobs because of this. And it is very possible in that context to lose hope and to get angry. And the author of Hebrews says, "Look at Jesus. You were expecting something different?You're His followers!Expect the hostility of sinners and love them like He did anyway, because the Gospel still works, whether they think it does or not!"This is huge for us, my friends.

A Cultural Parallel

I've been trying to think over the last few weeks what is this time that we are in like, and I think I've come upon an example from our past history. I think it is like the Great Ejection of 1662 in England. Now maybe you don't remember your English history but here is how it goes. In 1662 in England, there was a strong reaction against the Puritan movement that had been going on for a hundred years and two thousand ministers were kicked out of the Church of England, out of their churches, out of their manses, and forbidden to preach because they refused to sign an oath of loyalty to King and Church. And it had a profound effect on society. It meant that the rich, experiential theology of the Puritans was outlawed. And if you've read anything from that era that's called The Cavalier's Era, there is a hatred for all things Puritan

My friends, we live in a culture where Christianity itself is being rapidly disestablished and marginalized. And we can either get depressed about that or angry about that or we can look at Jesus who was despised by sinners and still said that He had come to seek and to save them and still said that He loved them and still died for them. Oh my friends, the author of Hebrews is telling us exactly what we need to know to live the Christian life right now. Lay aside sin and hindrances, be prepared to run a long race, look to Jesus - He's your prize - and when you think you're having it rough, consider what Jesus did and look at what He did and follow Him. Yes, yes!That's how to live the Christian life. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Bless it to our hearts, enable us to live the life by faith, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Now if you'd take your hymnals in hand, I'd invite you to turn - what is it? It's "Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting" and especially pay attention to the words of encouragement of Jesus to you.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Good of Discipline - Hebrews 12:1-11

Keep your eyes on Jesus and run the race - that's sort of the motto of the Christian life. And you'll notice in each of the verses the three directives - lay aside, run, and consider Him. Those are the three directives in each of the three first verses of the chapter and they outline for us three important parts of living the Christian life. Laying aside the hindrances of sin and other things, obstacles, especially in us, that keep us from living the Christian life. Running with endurance; not growing weary. Looking to Jesus who endured the cross; considering Him as He faced hostility from sinners and following after Him. And so our theme last week was - to live the Christian life you had to fix your eyes on Jesus and prepare to run a distance race.

Well this whole chapter is about the Christian life and about sanctification, and in particular in the passage we're going to study today, we're going to see the author of Hebrews elaborate on this point of how to live the Christian life. So for instance, in verses 4 to 6, we're going to encounter an exhortation about what it's going to take to live the Christian life. As the first three verses were an encouragement, verses 4 to 6 provide a sobering exhortation. And then, verses 7 to 11, follow up with a word about how we are to understand who and what is happening in the discipline that we experience in the Christian life. So be on the lookout for those things as we work through the passage today. Let's look to God in prayer and ask for His help and blessing as we prepare to read it.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word so we pray that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.'

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it sounded best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

To live the Christian life you need to understand how the highest privilege and the deepest depths and the hardest discipline go together. Those things don't seem like the go together - the highest privilege in the Christian life with the hardest discipline and the deepest depths of struggle with your own inward trials? Those things don't seem like they go together, but they do. It's interesting, this whole passage is about the Christian life and it highlights all three of those things. It highlights the glorious privilege of sonship. J. I. Packer in his book, Knowing God, says, "The privilege of adoption is the highest privilege of the Christian life," and this passage is filled with truth about the Biblical doctrine of adoption and the Christian experience of being a son of God. You do understand that, sisters in the congregation, you are all sons. Every man in Christ here today is a bride, and every woman in Christ here today is a son. What that means is you are a full co-inheritor of your Father's estate, and that glorious doctrine of adoption is all over this passage about the Christian life. But that privilege is set in the context of deep depths and hard discipline, wherein God brings providences into our experience that test and try us and grow us in grace. And those things are not contradictions; they actually belong together, although it's hard for us to see that sometimes and it's certainly hard for us to feel that sometimes in the Christian life.

I. An Encouragement: In order to endure, look to Jesus who has already endured for you

So with that as our one theme today, that, to live the Christian life we need to understand that the highest privilege and the deepest depths and the hardest discipline all go together, I want us to see three things this morning. And the first thing is this. Look at verses 1 to 3. Let's go back and briefly recount that passage that's meant for our encouragement in sanctification. The author of Hebrews there teaches us that to live the Christian life we need to fix our eyes on Jesus and prepare for the long run. Now what does he mean, "fix our eyes on Jesus"? We don't have time to say all that he means, but let me just highlight from the passage the things that he wants us especially to see when we see Jesus. Look at verse 1. We're going to "run with endurance a race that is set before us." Now look what he asks us to see in Jesus - "looking to Jesus who endured the cross." So you're called to run an endurance race so who are you to look at? You're to look at Jesus who endured the cross! You're going to endure a race; He endured the cross. He's your encouragement. He's your example of endurance. You can look at the author and finisher of your faith and say, "I've been called to endure, but He endured before me and He endured for me the cross."

Then look at what he says - "despising the shame." Jesus endured shame on our behalf, and in the Christian life, from time to time, out of fidelity to Christ we must endure shame - when people publically humiliate us because of our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Gospel, to the Word of God, to the truth of the faith. Verse 3 - "Consider him who endured from sinners hostility against himself." So again, as Jesus endured hostility, we look to Him because He helps us know how to navigate the hostility that we experience. And then the final verses - "so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." You see what the author is saying? If you want to endure the Christian life in the long run that it is, you must look to Jesus who has already endured for you.

This is so kind of the author to tell us up front that the Christian life is not going to be a cakewalk. He's not saying, "It's going to be easy-peasy. You're going to go from strength to strength! You're going to win every battle. There are going to be no trials." No, it is going to be a long, hard race and you must approach it and prepare for it and be prepared for it like an Olympic athlete prepares for the events to come, like an ultra-marathon runner prepares for the race ahead. And that's so kind of him to give us that kind of a cold shower and tell us at the very outset, "The Christian life's not going to be easy." Wouldn't it have been horrible for some author of Scripture to say, "Oh, it's all going to be easy," and then you get thirty years into it and you ask, "What happened? I thought this was going to be easy!" It's very kind of him to give us some real politic, to give us some reality therapy, to tell us exactly how it's going to be ahead of time, not to discourage us but for the exact opposite reason - for the purpose of encouraging us. When the race is long and hard, then you say, "This is exactly what he told me it would be like."

II. An Exhortation about Killing Sin and Encountering Discipline

Second, look at verses 4 to 6. We see here, moving from that word of encouragement, now an exhortation about killing sin and encountering discipline. And we learn from these verses that to live the Christian life we must prepare for killing sin and bearing discipline. Listen to his words. "In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Now that is one of the most bracing sentences in all of the New Testament. Can you imagine going into a friend's office, you're looking for a little encouragement because you've been struggling with a particular sin, and your friend says, "Well, you haven't died trying to kill that sin yet, have you?" And you think to yourself, "Gee, that was encouraging!" But it actually is. Notice how the question is phrased. The question is phrased so that nobody can answer the question, "Yes." "You haven't resisted that sin to the point of death yet, have you?" Nobody can answer that who is not already dead. So anybody still alive can't answer the question, "Yes." You have to answer the question, "No. Well, I guess I haven't died fighting that sin." And that's the whole point, you see. The point is, the Christian life and the fight of faith is something that's not going to be over until you take your last breath. Don't be surprised by that, don't be discouraged by that, but be prepared for that fight of faith, for that work of mortification and of killing sin and of encountering discipline.

Notice what he goes on to say. "Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.'" You see what the author is saying at that point? He's telling us that although often we are discouraged in our experience of God's providential discipline, that isn't meant to discourage us; it proves that we are His sons. It proves that we are His legitimate children. It is the method of His love.

A Plea for Sanctification

Many of you know John Newton's poem, "These Inward Trials." It's Newton's recounting of his prayer for God to sanctify him and what happened in answer to that prayer. This is what Newton says: "I asked the Lord that I might grow, in faith, in love, in every grace;" - that's a great Christian prayer for sanctification. "That I might more of His salvation know, and seek more earnestly His face." That's another good Christian prayer for sanctification, that you might know the fullness of God's salvation and that you might seek His face. That's the language of, "Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. I want You to be my heartbeat, Lord. I want You to be the one that I treasure."

And then this is what Newton tells us that he was expecting: "I hoped that in some favored hour, at once He'd answer my request;" - instant sanctification. You're just going to give me faith, hope and love, You're going to give me more fullness of Your salvation, You're going to show me Your face, I'm going to love You more, Lord, I'm going to grow leaps and bounds, I'd just like You to give it to me right now.

"And by His loves constraining power, subdue my sins, and give me rest." He wanted to see sin killed, sin defeated, and rest from this battle against sin.

Now here's how he goes on in the poem:

"Instead of this He made me feel, the hidden evils of my heart; and let the angry powers of hell, assault my soul in every part. Yes more, with His own hand He seemed, intent to aggravate my woe; He crossed all the fair designs I schemed, blasted my gourds, and laid me low. 'Lord, why is this?' I tremblingly cried, 'Will You pursue Your worm to death?' 'Tis in this way,' the Lord replied, 'I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I employ, from self and pride to set you free; and break your schemes of earthly joy, that you may seek your all in Me.'"

That's how the Lord works and that's exactly what the author of Hebrews is talking about. And you know this to be true in your own experience.

A Picture of Sanctification

You know, we just announced this morning that dear Madeline Clark went home to be with the Lord yesterday. Nine long years we've watched Madeline struggle with cancer and the side effects of it. And we've watched Vic put on a clinic on how a husband takes care of his wife. We really have. It's been a privilege to see that. And I'll bet many of you, just like I have, have thought in your hearts, more than once, "Lord, why Vic and why Madeline?" You know, if there's anybody in this congregation that didn't need that much sanctification it's Vic and Madeline - the joy that woman brought to this place, the humble, steady, servant heart of Vic Clark. No, I think there are a lot of us in line before them that needed God's sanctifying work, at least by our own estimations. And that is how God chose to work. It's mysterious, isn't it? But you know, I could go through every pew in this room today and I could tell that same story over again with just different circumstances because God deals with us in those deep depths with discipline that sometimes seems hard. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "When you're there and you're discouraged, remember that what God is actually doing when that happens in your life if He is proving that He loves you and He is proving to you that you are His child." You see, to live the Christian life you have to understand how the highest privileges and the depths and the hardest discipline go together, because they do.

III. To live the Christian Life, you have to know the Who and the Why of Discipline

Now that leads us to the third part. Look with me at verses 7 to 11. Because to live the Christian life you also have to know the who and the why of discipline. To live the Christian life, you have to know the who and the why of discipline. Verses 7 to 11 basically focus your attention on who it is that is dispensing the discipline and what His purposes are. And what does it say? Well look at verse 7. "God is treating you as sons" in the discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons. Who is it that is dispensing the discipline? Your heavenly Father, who loves you. And my friends, if you won't receive what you are experiencing as from His hand, you'll be bitter, because I know some of the things that you have experienced and are experiencing. If you can't receive those as coming from the hand of your heavenly Father, you will be bitter. Samuel Rutherford used to say that "faith learns to kiss the hand of her striking Lord." In other words, the very hand that spanks you is the hand that loves you and you learn to kiss that hand because you know that the Lord's purposes for you are good.

Now that's easy for me to say, but it can take weeks and months and years through the hardest struggles of our life, to really come to believe and appreciate that what we are receiving in our lives comes from our heavenly Father who loves us. But that is a fight of faith that is worth the effort, my friends. It may be one of the greatest things you ever do. Just like forgiving someone may be one of the greatest acts of heroism that you ever fulfill in the Christian life, so also believing that the hard discipline of your life comes from the hand of your loving heavenly Father. It may be one of the greatest acts of faith that you ever do.

Discipline to what end?

But what's He up to? Well isn't it interesting how many things we are told in Hebrews 12 verses 7 to 11 that He's up to. First of all, He's up to your endurance. It is for discipline that you have to endure. In other words, the discipline that God is bringing into your life is designed so that you will endure to the end. Furthermore, it "yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" - verse 11. It's designed to grow us in righteousness. Verse 10 - it's "for our good." It proves that we are sons. But most of all, look at the very end of verse 10. He disciplines us for our good - why? "That we may share His holiness." Isn't that glorious? That God's discipline is so that we might share His character. He's ready to share who He is and what He is like with us, but it's going to require discipline for us to share in that. Isn't that a contrast to Genesis 3? The serpent says to Eve, "If you want to be like God, you've got to disobey Him." The Father says, "If you want to be like Me, you're going to have to be holy, and I'm going to have to discipline you in order that you would be like Me."

Now my friends, those three things go together in the Christian life - our highest privilege, God's adoption of us as His sons, the deepest depths of our inward trials, and the hardest discipline of His providence. They all go together; they're not contradictory. We need to know that to live the Christian life. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, work the truth of this passage into our hearts so that we receive it by faith and are enabled to live this life fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who has already endured the cross for us and who now is seated at the right hand of glory on high, ever living to intercede so that we too might endure. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Now if you'd take your hymnals in hand and turn with me to number 575, our VBS hymn this year was, "Soldiers of Christ Arise," and this hymn catches beautifully the emphases of this passage. Let's sing it to God's praise.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Preparation for God's Presence - Hebrews 12:12-17

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. We'll be looking at verses 12 to 17 this morning. As we do so, I do want to bring you greeting from your Australian Presbyterian cousins. I've enjoyed being with them the last few days in Melbourne and in Sydney, speaking at the Presbyterian Theological College and also speaking at their General Assembly which they hold once every three years. And they have expressed their appreciation to you for sparing me to them and it was a pleasure to be with them and to be refreshed with both new friends and old. I also want to welcome those who are here who are friends and family of the children who have been baptized this morning. It's always a joy to have you present with us and we trust that you will be blessed under the ministry of God's Word.

Well we're in a section in the book of Hebrews that is dealing with the Christian life. And the very passage that we're going to read today begins with a "therefore" clause, which indicates that the exhortation about the Christian life is based on what has gone before. If you will remember, you may want to allow your eyes to look at the first two or three verses of the chapter, the chapter begins by comparing the Christian life to a long-distance run. In the passage that we read today, especially in verse 12 and 13, the Christian life will be compared to a difficult journey. Now in the first eleven verses of chapter 12, the author has emphasized that in order to live the Christian life, which is a long-distance run and a difficult journey, we need to accept God's Fatherly discipline. So the emphasis in the first eleven verses has been on our accepting the discipline of the Lord. Now he shifts to an active exhortation. He calls us to do something. And it's important for us to keep in balance those things in the Christian life. We're called to accept things in the Christian life - to accept Christ and the Gospel, to accept God's providence and discipline, and simply to receive and rest in those things. But we're also called to do things in the Christian life and these things are not legalism. They are things we are told to do because the author understands the nature of the life we're called to. And so in dependence upon God's grace, we do these things, very frankly he's going to be realistic with us - the Christian life can be hard and these things will help us.

So let's give attention to God's Word. And before we do, let's pray and ask for His blessing.

Father, this is Your Word and we know that we need help to live the Christian life. We want to live it the Gospel way. We don't want to trust in our own strength; we want to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. And so we pray, O God, that as we do this and as we listen to this Word that You will make our paths straight, in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 12 verse 12:

"Therefore lift your dropping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The Christian life is not easy; it's hard. It's a long-distance run; it's a difficult journey. And it is not meant to be undertaken alone. What I love about this passage, and I love many things about it, is that it is utterly realistic. How many of you, when you started out in the Christian life, thought that you were going to do differently than the generations before you? That you understood things that your forbearers in the faith didn't? That your life was going to be different - you were going to go from strength to strength? And then things got hard in the Christian life and you got disappointed and very frankly you were a little surprised by that disappointment and it led to despondency and even to despair. Well the author of Hebrews knows how hard the Christian life can be and he has some words that are utterly realistic but they are ultimately very encouraging. And he also stressed in this passage that the Christian life is not meant to be and in fact cannot be lived alone. It is not a solitary life; it's a life in which we need one another. We need one another's encouragement, we need one another's sympathy, we need one another's understanding, we need one another's example, and we need one another's care. And that's what he's going to talk about in this passage.

Brace Yourself

And this morning, in just a few moments, I want us to look at three things that he tells us. We could actually number his exhortations differently but I want to look at three things. And the first one I want you to see is in verses 12 and 13. The first exhortation is to brace yourselves for the challenges on your journey. Notice what he says. "Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees." Now you will recognize those things as telltale signs of someone who is plumb tuckered out! Have you ever been watching a football game and the two teams have been striving in a great contest and it's gotten to the final quarter and you notice these amazing athletes on both sides have their hands on their hips, they're taking deep breaths, they're bent over between the plays - you can tell they are exhausted.

That's exactly the picture that the author of Hebrews is painting here. People in a long-distance run, in a difficult journey, and they are absolutely worn out. And that being worn out leads them to despondency, maybe even to despair, certainly to discouragement. And his word here to us in verses 12 and 13 is, "Brace yourselves. That day is coming." The day is coming in your Christian life when you are going to be winded, when you are going to be tired, when you're not going to think you can take another step forward, when your hands are drooping and your wind is missing and your knees are weak. Brace yourselves; it's coming. And be prepared to fight through that despondency and that discouragement and even the despair. I love them realism of this passage. He's telling you ahead of time what you're going to hit. "There's going to be a day," he says, "when you feel like you hit a wall in the Christian life. I've told you ahead of time. Be prepared for it. Depend on God's grace. Believe God's promise and fight through it like a runner fights through exhaustion in those last miles before the finish line. Be ready for it. It's coming." It's a word of realism.

It's also a word to the whole congregation about encouraging one another. You might not pick it up in the English translation we're reading out of, but this exhortation to "lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight the paths for your feet," this exhortation is meant not only to you individually but to you collectively in the congregation. You see that if you look, by the way, down at verse 15. There he says, "See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God." Now that direction is to the congregation and it's meant to encourage the congregation to look out for everyone in the congregation. We're all in the same fight. We're all in the same race. We're all on the same journey. And it's not an individual journey; it's a journey we're taking together, and so we're to be on the lookout for one another. We're to be on the lookout for people in our midst who have drooping hands, who have wobbly knees, and in the language of verse 13, who have gimpy legs. We're to be on the lookout for one another and we're to be ready to encourage one another.

And you know what one of the great ways that we encourage one another is? We fight through our own discouragements. Have you ever been deeply encouraged by watching how another Christian, maybe even another Christian in this congregation, trusted God through suffering? I have. And do you know what that does when you watch another believer, especially a good friend, trust God through suffering? It strengthens you. When you see another believer, especially a believer in your congregation, hit the wall and trust God anyway and keep fighting through the despair and the discouragement, it encourages you not to give up. One of the great ways that we can encourage one another in the Christian life is to keep on believing, keep on trusting, keep on going when we hit the hard places in the Christian life. We've got brothers and sisters who are watching and they need to see us trusting. And so often they are strengthened because they see us continue to believe the Gospel, continue to believe the Scriptures, continue to trust God's promises, continue to depend on God's strength, and fight through the hard places in life. That's the first thing that we learn in this passage. We're to brace ourselves for the challenges on the journey because they are going to come. There's going to be a day when despondency sets in. There's going to be a day when we're discouraged. There's going to be a day when we despair. Be prepared. Fight through it. Don't give up.

BE AT PEACE WITH THOSE AROUND YOU

AND PURSUE HOLINESS

The second thing is this. Look at verse 14. Here, he tells us that we are to make deliberate exertion to do two things - to be at peace with those around us and to pursue holiness. Look at what he says. "Strive," strong word, "Strive, deliberately exert yourself for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." You see what he's telling us to do? He's telling us be at peace with the world and at war with your sin. Here's how you live the Christian life. In so far as it is possible for you, to use the language of Paul in the book of Romans, in so far as it is possible for you, be at peace with everyone. This is not peace at all costs. It's not peace wherein we compromise the teachings of Scripture or the deep truths of the Gospel, but it is a deliberate exertion in so far as it is possible for us that we value peaceful relations with others - in our families, in our church, and especially with our unbelieving neighbors. We seek to be at peace with everyone "and to pursue holiness." He uses very strong words. To pursue that holiness "without which no one will see the Lord." Now he's not preaching salvation by holiness, he's not preaching salvation by personal holiness, he's not preaching salvation by works. He's not even preaching salvation by faith plus works or grace plus holiness. He's simply saying this. The whole purpose of God's salvation is to prepare us for the enjoyment of His presence. And God is holy and He does not fellowship with sin. So in preparation for the enjoyment of the presence of God, God in His kindness, by the Holy Spirit, works in us holiness and we ourselves are to strive - that the language of the author here - we're to strive to grow in grace. We're to strive for sanctification. We're to strive after more godliness. We want to grow more like Jesus.

And so the author is saying, "You want to live the Christian life? You not only have to be prepared for the discouragements but you want to deliberately live at peace with everyone and you want to be fighting sin, pursuing holiness, growing in grace." That ought to be an aspiration of the Christian life. Every true believer wants to be more like Jesus not so that we can do enough so that God will accept us, but because God has graciously accepted us and forgiven us, pardoned us and adopted us through the work of His dear Son, precisely because of that we want to fellowship with God forever. And the product of that, the consequence of that, the result of that is we grow in grace. We pursue holiness because we want to be like our Savior and we want ultimately to fellowship with Him. And one day, when we do fellowship with Him, it will be a day in which He had put an end to all our sin. And so our sanctification really is ultimately practice for what we will be like for eternity. We will never ever again hurt the people that we love. We will never ever again leave the God we love. We will never ever again do like those people did in response to Jeremiah's message when he called on them to give up their idols say, "We're not going to give up our idols. We're going to continue to worship our idols." Never again. God will put an end to all sin one day. Not in this life but when Jesus comes. And so our pursuit of holiness in this life is a pursuit of the enjoyment of the absence of sin that we will experience forever with God. And so it's not a negative thing; it is the most positive and encouraging of things.

BE YOUR BROTHER'S KEEPER

But there's a third thing I want you to see in this passage too. And you'll see it in verses 15 to 17. If I could put it provocatively, the author of Hebrews says here, "Be your brother's keeper." Be your brother's keeper. Not in a nosey way, not in a condescending and intrusive way, not in a busybody way that gets into everybody else's life and tells them how they ought to live it, but in an encouraging way the author of Hebrews tells that we ought to have a congregational concern for life in grace in three areas. Let me just note them to you. "See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God," verse 15, "that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble," and then verse 16, "that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau." Now look at the three things that he says.

LONG FOR HIS APPROPRIATION OF GRACE

First, he tells you to be your brother's keeper longing for his appropriation of grace. "See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God." Now it's very interesting, this is not directed to the pastors and to the elders. It's directed to the whole congregation. And it says to the congregation, "You ought to want all of your brothers and sisters in this congregation to obtain the grace that is held out to them in the means of grace every Lord's Day as the Gospel is read and preached and proclaimed and applied." In other words, you want to see them embrace a grace that God is freely offering. And so often people sit right under the free offer of the Gospel and do not respond in faith. People sit under the means of grace Lord's Day after Lord's Day and somehow they miss it. And the author is saying, "As a congregation, you ought to care about one another's souls. You want to see people embraced by grace. You want to see people obtaining grace. You want to see people having faith in God's promises." That is a congregational concern.

BE ON GUARD AGAINST BITTERNES

Second, notice what he says. "See to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled." There, we are told congregationally to be on guard against bitterness. Isn't it interesting? Once again, this is not just a challenge to us to be on guard against bitterness in our own lives, though we certainly should do that, it is a challenge to be on guard against bitterness in the lives of the congregation. Do you see what it says here? Bitterness is never merely a personal matter. If you are bitter, what may well happen? Look at the end of verse 15 - "by it many become defiled." Bitterness is contagious and that's why it's of congregational concern. Bitterness always occurs when in the hard circumstances of our lives we stop believing in the goodness and the kindness of God's providence. And when we do, when we become bitter, it becomes contagious, infectious, and it can impact the whole life of the congregation. And so again he says, "See to it that you are ministering to one another so that bitterness does not take root and spread in the congregation like some sort of a weed." Once again, one of the ways that we fight this is when we see Christians go through hard things and stay tender. Christians who go through difficult things but they don't become cynical. Christians who go through horrific circumstances but they keep on trusting and they have a sweet spirit and they believe in God's providence. Just as bitterness can be infectious, so also trust in God's providence can breed a trust in God's providence in the congregation.

FEAR AND FLEE IMMORALITY

And then there's a third thing here as well. Look at verse 16. "See to it that no one is sexually immoral and unholy like Esau." So the congregation is to be concerned to fear and flee immorality. Now this is a very timely warning for us in the day and age in which we live, but notice the whole description of Esau is a person whose life is based on instant gratification in the here and now. He gave away his birthright for a bowl of soup. This is a man who wanted his reward right now. He wanted immediate satisfaction and he was satisfied with temporal, passing things. And so once again, the diagnosis of those who commit themselves to sexual immorality and to unholiness is they don't understand the deeper joy, the greater treasure, that is held out to us in Christ and in the Gospel. They are settling for a base, instant gratification. Don't be like that. Don't give in to that kind of thinking.

And notice what he says comes along with it. What comes along with it when your hope is in the here and now is in an inability to repent. It's a frightening phrase, isn't it? Esau could not get that birthright back, couldn't get that blessing from God back because he found no place for repentance. In other words, because he was so fixed on the here and now and on instant gratification, he couldn't even see his need for repentance to get the thing that he wanted the most and so he did not receive it. It's a great warning to us that the Christian life is lived in repentance. You know that was the very first of Martin Luther's ninety-five theses that he nailed to the castle church door in Wittenberg, that the whole Christian life is one of repentance.

Now all of these directives, all of these directives are meant to us as an encouragement for the living of the Christian life. There's the first encouragement, to lift drooping hands and strengthen weak knees. It's utterly realistic about the challenges of the Christian life. There's the second exhortation that we are to strive after holiness because we are preparing to be with the Lord forever together. And then there's this call for us as a congregation to be concerned about our appropriation of grace and our guarding against bitterness and our fleeing from immorality. These things are all requisite if we are going to live the Christian life. May the Lord bless His teaching to our hearts. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we bow before You thanking You for Your Word and asking You to work its truth deep into our lives by grace, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now let's sing to God's praise hymn number 700, "Come We That Love the Lord."

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mt. Zion - Hebrews 12:18-29

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. We're coming to the end of this great chapter and it's been a chapter about the living of the Christian life. And in the final verses of this passage that we're going to read together this morning, the emphasis is going to be on our motivation for living the Christian life. Why you do what you do is very important. It's very important for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons why you do what you do is important is because it impacts your joy. If you do the right thing for the wrong reason it can rob you of the joy in doing that right thing. If you do the right thing for the right reason it can increase and sustain your joy in doing the right thing. And the author of Hebrews has something that he wants to say to us this morning about why we live the Christian life. Why do we seek to pursue holiness? Why do we seek to endure in the distance run? Why do we seek to fight the good fight? Why do we seek to push through the obstacles and challenges in the situations of our life? Well he wants to put before us some motivations to help us along the way and I want you to be on the lookout for them. There are three in particular that I want to draw to your attention.

The first one you'll see in verses 18 to 24. What he puts before us there as a motivation for living the Christian life is what God has given you. Then, if you'll look at verses 25 to 27, the second motive that he will put before you for the living of the Christian life is what is at stake. So in the first section - what God has given you. The second section - what is at stake. And then finally, if you'll look at verses 28 and 29, he'll say, "This is the final motivation for the Christian life" - who God is. What God has given you. What is at stake. Who God is. Be on the lookout for that as we read. Let's pray before we hear God's Word.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We need it as much as we need food. So open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it, and by Your Holy Spirit help us to understand it, apply it to our hearts by His work, grant that we would believe it and embrace it, and that You would transform us by it, all in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 12 verse 18:

"For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, 'If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.' Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I tremble with fear.' But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God,

the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' This phrase, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of things that are shaken - that is, things that have been made - in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

What Drives us to Press On?

Why do you live the Christian life? What has gotten you through your hard spots? What kept you going? Was there a particular motivation? I've talked to many of you in this congregation about various, Biblical motivations that kept you going in the hardest places in life. For some of you, it was the awareness that your Father watches every hair of your head, just as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, and that nothing happens to you in this life apart from your Heavenly Father's will. Your sense of His Fatherly providence and protection was a motivation for you to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to get out of bed in the morning and put two feet on the floor and keep on believing. For others of you, it was often a sense of how much God had given you in His grace, especially in forgiveness. You are conscious of enormous sins in your lives that God had graciously dealt with and forgiven. You knew that you could have been ruined by your enemies and perhaps abandoned by your friends if they knew what you were like inside. And yet God, knowing everything about you, gave His Son in your place to welcome you back into His family, to lavish on you His love. And that motivated you every day to know that your Father had accepted you, not merely unconditionally but at the cost of His Son and that He loves you at a price that you can't even begin to calculate. That motivated you in the Christian life.

Well the New Testament is filled with motivations for living the Christian life. God is so kind to us; He knows that the fight that we are called to is hard. He knows that discouragement is ubiquitous. It's everywhere! You don't have to look far to be discouraged in the Christian life. And so he spends so much time giving us a reason to keep on believing, giving a reason to keep on trusting, giving a reason to keep on enduring. That's one of the things that proves to me that mere humans did not write this book. Human beings, two thousand years ago, could not have anticipated your and my discouragements. The author of this book did. Now as I said, the New Testament is filled with motivations for living the Christian life but today I want to look at three, and you'll see them in the passage before you.

A Motivation for the Christian Life: What God has Given Us

First, take a look at verses 18 to 24 and there the author of Hebrews points our attention to what God has given us as a motivation, and he does it against a backdrop of the visit of the children of Israel after the exodus in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. And he contrasts the mountain that they came to and the mountain that we have come to. And he says, "Remember what God has brought you to. Remember what God has given you. He's not brought you to the mountain of the law, Mount Sinai, where there was thunder and lightning and earthquake and darkness and smoke and fire and the voice of God that literally scared the children of Israel to death and the command that if you even touch this mountain you'll die."

The Terrors of Mt. Sinai

You remember how it happened? They came to Sinai to worship but they were told, "Do not touch the mountain. If man or beast touches this mountain they will die." It's almost like a police tape was wrapped around Mount Sinai and the message was, "There, but no further." And when the engagement with God begins, they're all right up on the mountain crowding but not touching that police tape. But when you read Exodus 20 after God speaks, you remember the ten words in Exodus 20 are not spoken by Moses to the people; God Himself speaks those words to the children of Israel. And when we find the next they are hundreds of yards away from the mountain of Sinai. Whereas they had been told initially, "Don't get too close," Moses and the elders have to call them back again. And do you remember what the people say to Moses? They say, "Moses, just one request: Please never let Him speak to us directly again. Would you always be His spokesman? Would you always be His mouthpiece because it terrified us to hear the voice of the living God from Sinai with thunder and lightning and earthquake and darkness and fire speaking to us and the whole world trembling?" In fact, the author of Hebrews reminds us even Moses was terrified. And the author of Hebrews says that is not what God has brought you to. He's brought you to Mount Zion.

The Blessings of Mt. Zion

And look at how he piles up the blessings of Mount Zion. Take a look especially at verses 22 to 24. He says seven things that God has brought you to. He's brought you to Mount Zion, "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." You have been brought to the capital city of the new heavens and the new earth and guess where it is? It's you because it's not a place; it's a people. You are the God-indwelt capital city of the new heavens and the new earth. Second, He has brought you to "innumerable angels in festal gathering." You have just showed up at the biggest party in the history of the world and those angels are celebrating the victory of Christ in triumph over sin and in your redemption and you've just walked into that party and you're the honored guest! Third, you have been brought to "the assembly of the firstborn." You are called a firstborn. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God but in Him, as you trust in Him for salvation, each one of you is firstborn. That is, you get the lion's share of the inheritance from your Heavenly Father. You've been brought into the assembly of the firstborn - to the church, the people of God, the chosen of God, the united to Christ, those who are the inheritors.

You have, fourth, been brought to "a judge who is God of all," not to a mere and human imperfect judge but to the God who judges rightly and who vindicates His people. Think about how much that would have meant to these people. These people, no doubt, had experienced injustice from Roman judges and now the author of Hebrews has said, "The next judge you'll be before will be your Heavenly Father who loves you and who always does justly. So even if you've experienced injustice from a Roman judge, the next judge you appear before will be God who is judge of all." Fifth, you will be brought to the "spirits of just men made perfect." You will come into the presence of saints who have already experienced the reality of God's perfecting Spirit in glory. When you see the people of God in that day, they will all be perfect, like Eve and Adam before the Fall except better, because they will be confirmed eternally in righteousness. There will not be a flaw that you can identify in a single one of a multitude that no man can number. Think of that. When we are with our best friends, we see their flaws; because we love them, we cover those things up. We do not discourage them nor do we run them down to others because of those flaws, but we see them. We all have them. You will not be able to identify one.

Sixth, you will be brought - and I love this phrase - "to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant." And there, the human name, Jesus, is mentioned and emphasized because it draws attention to His saving character. You remember what Matthew records for us? "His name shall be called Jesus, for He will save His people." And you will be there with Jesus. You remember what we're poignantly told by Peter? "You have not seen Him and yet you love Him." You will not be able to say that after that day. You will have seen Him and perhaps touched Him. That's who you're brought to. And to "the sprinkled blood," not merely the blood of animal sacrifices, not even the deeds and worship of Abel but to the blood of God's own Son. Do you see what the author of Hebrews is doing? He's piling up what God has given to you in Christ and he's asked you this question - "Have you thought about what I've given you? Have you thought about what I've brought you to? Do you have a sense of what I've bestowed on you? Satan said he was going to bless you, the world says it's going to bless you, the flesh says it's going to bless you and they've let you down every time. Here's what I've given you; here's what I've brought you to, which is worth living for."

Do you see what he's saying? He's saying that we ought to live the Christian life with passion and with hope and with endurance because God has brought us into and is bringing us into and will bring us into the culminating experience of His purposes of grace and His blessings are more than we can number and beyond anything that we can ask or think. Nothing in this world can compete with them. They're worth living for and they are worth dying for and they are worth suffering anything we have to suffer in this life. That's the first thing that he says.

A Motivation for the Christian Life: What's at Stake

The second thing he says, look at verses 25 to 27, is this. We are motivated to live the Christian life because of what's at stake. You know you might think that the logic goes - God revealed His wrath in the Old Testament but He reveals His love in the New Testament. That would be wrong. God reveals His wrath and His love in the Old Testament and He reveals His wrath and His love in the New Testament both more. That's the logic of this passage. The logic is - if you think, when God spoke, that the earth shook at Sinai, just remember that He said, "The next time I speak the earth and the heaven will shake!" That's what, "Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending" was all about. That's why that was so appropriate that we would sing that in the context of Jeremiah's judgment passage because when Jesus comes, well in the old phrase, "You ain't seen nothing yet." Sinai is small fry compared to the Second Coming of Christ.

You see what the author if drawing our attention to is what is at stake. Do we realize that? I was talking to a friend a few years ago who was lamenting a decision that he had made many, many years ago in life. And he said to me, "What could have been so important to me that I chose that?" It was a good question and it's a good question for us to ask ourselves, because on the last day, when He has come with clouds descending, many will say, "What could have been so important that I ignored Him? What could have been so important that it was more important than God, more important that Jesus, more important than the Gospel, more important that God's offer of grace?" You see, in verses 25 to 27, the author of Hebrews is reminding us what is at stake. We ought to live the Christian life with passion and hope and endurance because the stakes are literally eternal. Life is short. The consequences are huge. Eternity lasts forever. Or as John Piper likes to say, "Life is short. Hell is real. Eternity is long." That's what's at stake. That's why R. C. Sproul likes to say, "Right now counts forever." What does he mean by that? Who you trust, what you believe, how you live, right now, counts forever. There are many people who live in the here and now and don't see that. And so the author of Hebrews is just putting that right up before our eyes and he's saying the stakes are high!

A Motivation for the Christian Life: Who God Is

Last, look at verses 28 and 29. We also live the Christian life because of who our God is. Now you might have expected him to say, "The God of Sinai was a God of judgment! He was a consuming fire! But our God, seen in the face of Jesus Christ is the God of love!" Interestingly that's not what he says. Having already contrasted the blessings that we are brought to at Mount Sinai over against the consuming fire of Mount Sinai, he says - what? "Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire." He's saying that one motivation for living the Christian life is realizing who your God is. Now is the result of that to terrify you? No, because the reverence and awe, the fear of the Lord that he speaks about in verse 28 is not a slavish dread of God; it is a childlike respect and affection for Him. The author of Hebrews - notice what he says. He says, "Let us therefore be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe." So the fact that our God is a consuming fire is to move us to two things - gratitude and what the Old Testament calls "the fear of God." Isn't that interesting? Both of those together - the fact that our God is a consuming fire makes us grateful and respectful and holding him in awe. Grateful because we know that since He is a consuming fire, if He dealt with us as we deserve we would be consumed but we have not been. His Son has borne His wrath for us. And so we're grateful.

Driving us to Gratitude and Adoration

And what does that make us do? It makes us go to Him with respect and awe and love. The author of Hebrews is saying the person who realizes that God is a consuming fire and that God has shown us grace in Jesus Christ will look at God with childlike love and respect the way a child looks at a father who she adores and respects. Some of you haven't had fathers like that, I understand; some of you have. If you haven't, God is the kind of Father that you've never had. If you have, God is better even than the father that you have. When a child, who absolutely adores her father and completely respects him, looks at him, she holds him in reverence. And the author of Hebrews is saying when we realize our God is a consuming fire and that He has been gracious to us, we will live a life that is characterized by one word - gratitude. We'll wake up in the morning and the first thought in our mind is, "Thank you, Jesus. I'm breathing. I don't deserve to be breathing. I'm still breathing; I still don't deserve to be breathing. Thank you, Jesus." And, "Lord, there's nothing like You. There really isn't. I reverence You, I respect You, I hold You in awe. I want to glorify You today, Lord. I want people to realize that there's nothing else in this world better than You." He changes the way you live.

All around you are people who think they've gotten the short end of the stick and they're bitter about it, but what changes the believer's life is, we realize, "Huh-uh, not only do we get the long end of the stick, we've got a stick that we never deserved to get in the first place. And it means that our lives are characterized by thanking Him. "Thank You, Father. There's nothing like You." And the author of Hebrews tells us all of this because the Christian life is hard. He's already told us it's like an endurance run, it's like a fight, it's like a battle, it's like a contest. And every day, maybe even today, you will have every opportunity to be discouraged and even to want to quit. And the author of Hebrews has put this before you because he wants you to keep on going. Don't give up. Don't stop. Keep believing. Keep trusting. Life with passion and hope and endurance because your God is not only a consuming fire, He is good beyond your wildest imaginations and He is working.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. We need it in the middle of the years, in the middle of the fight, in the middle of the race. We need to believe it. Help us, by Your Spirit, to believe it, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now would you take your hymnals out and let's sing about this fight. It's number 358 - "For All the Saints."

That vision puts strength in every stride. Now receive grace for the fight. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love The Brethren - Hebrews 13:1-3

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews 13. We're going to be looking at the first three verses this morning. As we turn there, I'll remind you that the last time we were together in this book in Hebrews 12, we were emphasizing the proper motivation for the Christian life - why it is that we do what we do. Our motivation is very important in the Christian life. And at the end of Hebrews 12, in fact the whole of that chapter, is very much devoted to making sure that we understand the motivations that God has provided for us to encourage us along in living the Christian life. When you get to Hebrews 13, the focus shifts to what we are to do in the Christian life - from why we do what we do, to what we do and how we're supposed to do it. And so when you look at Hebrews 13 you could think, "Hmmm, this looks like a bunch of randomly collected exhortations, gathered up in a bag, shaken up and put down all in one chapter." But what you find as you look at the chapter more closely is that it is actually giving you specific encouragement on how to live the Christian life in a series of important issues.

If you'll go ahead and allow your eyes to scan down the page and look at verse 15 and then the verse following it, verse 16, the author of Hebrews says this. "Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God." And the look at verse 16, "for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." now those two little verses ought to raise your antennae up because this whole book long, the author of Hebrews has been arguing that Jesus is better than the sacrifices of the Old Testament, that He has offered a better sacrifice than the ceremonial sacrifices of the Old Testament and therefore we are to leave behind those Mosaic, old covenant, ceremonials and trust in Jesus, follow Jesus, put our faith in Jesus. Why in the world, at the end of this book, having made that argument that Jesus is better all along, would he suddenly reintroduce the idea of sacrifices that we are to offer, using the language, "Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God"? Because he is using, just like Paul, the term, "sacrifice," not as a liturgical instruction for how we are to worship when we gather as the people of God, but as a metaphor for how to live the Christian life. Sacrifice is now suddenly not liturgical worship language; it's all of life language. He's telling us how to live as a sacrifice of praise to God or how to offer sacrifices pleasing to God.

And who is that like? It's just like Paul. You remember what Paul says in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2? You know, for eleven chapters he has given you a glorious theology of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus, he has expounded the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and then in Romans 12:1 what does he say? "Therefore, in light of all that, brethren, by the mercies of God, I beseech you" - what? "To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable to your God, your reasonable service of worship." So isn't it interesting that Paul, having put our hope squarely on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, draws the conclusion that now, because we're trusting in the sacrifice of Christ alone for our salvation, as He is offered in the Gospel, we can now live as sacrifices for God? And the author of Hebrews is doing the same thing. He's saying, "Do you want to live as a sacrifice of praise to God? Do you want to give God a sacrifice that is pleasing to Him? Then live this way." In other words, both Paul and the author of Hebrews make it clear that our salvation is all by God's doing and based on what Christ has done, which frees us to be living sacrifices to God, not so that He will accept us, but because He has accepted us in Jesus Christ. And so these exhortations tell you how to live the Christian life.

And isn't it interesting, Hebrews 13:1, it begins with love? That really shouldn't surprise us, should it? Jesus, in the Upper Room, wants to drive home one very important message to His disciples as He washes their feet in John 13 and what does He say to them? "Beloved, love one another as I have loved you. A new commandment give I unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you." The love command and especially the command for love to the brethren was central to Jesus' teaching. And as the author of Hebrews gets to the point of telling you and me what it means to live a life that's a sacrifice of praise, he begins with love.

And so as we look at this passage together I want you to be on the lookout for three specific things. First, notice it's not just a generic command to love - you'll find lots of those in the New Testament - this is a command to love the brethren, to love your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's verse 1. Verse 2 - second, isn't it interesting the application of that love command in the sphere of hospitality is that you are to show hospitality to strangers? And then third, again, as an application of that love command, you are to show love to those who are imprisoned and mistreated. So you have a general command to love the brethren and then two specific applications of it as we read the passage together. Let's pray before we read God's Word.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word, so open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it. The things that You tell us here, Lord, are so simple, so clear, so easy to understand, but very easy to forget to do and sometimes very hard to actually do from our hearts. So we ask the help of the Holy Spirit, not just to understand but to do Your Word. In Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it, beginning in Hebrews 13 verse 1:

"Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

How do you live as a living sacrifice? How do you live life as a sacrifice of praise to God? How do you offer to God a sacrifice that is pleasing to Him? God, in His kindness, does not leave you to scratch your head and wonder what the answer is to that question. And it begins here in Hebrews 13 with this command - "Love your brothers and sisters in Christ." You want to offer a sacrifice that the Lord loves? You want to live as a sacrifice for Him? You don't have to scale mountains, cross seas, reach the impossible star - you just have to love the brethren. This is a glorious example of how to really live the radical Christian life, you have to do things that are right in front of your nose that are mundane, that won't get you an interview on Good Morning America, that won't get you on the front page of the New York Times, but which are very important to your God and bring delight to His heart and encouragement to your brothers and sisters.

THE COMMAND TO LOVE

So let's begin in verse 1. What does he tell us there? "Let brotherly love continue." What does that mean? It means that we are to be deliberate in cultivating and in showing true Christian love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. In other words, we are to live as if our fellow believers are family and we are to love them like they are family because they are. "Let brotherly love continue," is an exhortation which is echoed throughout the New Testament. I've already alluded to John 13:34 where Jesus calls His disciples to love one another as He has loved them. But over and over in the New Testament, it is emphasized the believers are now family members. You cannot be a Christian and not be the brother or sister of anybody else who is a Christian. And this passage is saying, "I want you to live and love like you know that you're actually related to these people in the pews who are not like you, who are different from you, who come from places and backgrounds and circumstances in life that are different from you. They are now your family and you are to love them with the same kind of an intensity that a functional family displays because they are your brothers and sisters. And my friends, that is hard to do. That is hard to do. Just like family can get on one another's nerves, church family can get on one another's nerves. I think it's so interesting in this passage, he says, "let brotherly love continue." You know, implied is, you've already started loving the brethren but you need to keep on doing that. And the keeping on of doing that is the hard thing, because over time we step on one another's toes, we let one another down, we irritate one another, we disagree with one another, and he says, "Here's the first thing that I want you to do to live as a sacrifice of praise to God - don't stop loving one another. Let that brotherly love continue."

And I want you to understand that he's not just talking about good feelings towards one another. But you know, for a lot of us, that wouldn't be a bad thing - to cultivate genuine delight in one another, to say, "Lord, I want not only to like but to genuinely love the members of my church family." Most of you, in your families, have at least one person who is that special person who is exceptionally hard to love. Most of you have that. I talk to you; I know that most of you have that! There are people like that in the church family. I was talking to our executive minister this morning about one of those people and how to manage that people! And it's very easy to become hard and a little jaded about some of the brethren. And here's what the author of Hebrews is saying. "Let brotherly love continue. Cultivate real love, care, and concern for one another. Show real love, care, and concern for one another." This is a New Testament emphasis. We cannot be Christians without being the brothers and sisters of all other Christians. And even more importantly, my friends, we cannot love and worship God while denying love for the brethren. John, having heard Jesus, tells us that. "You can't hate your brother and love God." John just puts it that starkly, doesn't he? Why? Because he learned it from Jesus! Cultivate love for the brothers.

That is a good message for us at First Presbyterian Church. I must say, I am with ministers from all parts of the world all of the time and when I hear about their congregations, especially in the way that their congregations relate to one another, I am always happy when I am back home. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Do not take that for granted, First Presbyterian Church. Continue in love for the brothers. That is so important. It's important for your witness to God, it's important for glorifying God, it's important for you to live as a sacrifice of praise to God - that you genuinely love one another. People will know. In this world, in this world that will mean so much. We live in a world that is virtually connected twenty-four hours a day and there has never been more loneliness in this world. And when people come into contact with genuine, Gospel-based relationships, who've never experienced that before, they've never ever conceived that something could be like that. You have no idea of the power of that. Cultivate that.

And don't just cultivate the natural relationships that exist among you, cultivate all of the relationships that ought to exist for the sake of the Gospel. You are the most connected, related network bunch of people that I have ever met in my life! Two-thirds of you went to kindergarten with one another and stayed together in elementary school, high school, college, fraternity, sorority, and you live in the same neighborhood now! Paul's talking about, or the author of Hebrews is talking about more than just that kind of relationship. He's talking about a Gospel-based love for one another because you're brothers and sisters in Christ, and that means loving people who are not like you but who are part of your church family and part of your Christian family and we ought to be deliberate in that. Every member of this congregation ought to be able to testify, "I love my brethren and I have been loved by my brethren." Everyone ought to be able to give that testimony. "Let the love of the brothers continue. Let brotherly love continue."

CULTIVATE AND PRACTICE HOSPITALITY

Secondly, look at verse 2. He applies this in a very specific way and it may be a little surprising to you. He says, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." What is he saying? He's saying that we are to be deliberate in cultivating and practicing hospitality to those who are passing through. In other words, we are to view ourselves as hosts appointed by God for the comfort of others. Middle Eastern hospitality is legendary. Even to this day, Middle Eastern hospitality is legendary. People in the Middle East know how to show hospitality. Once upon a time, the South was legendary for hospitality, but air conditioning and convenience had really gotten in the way of that and we have more of a bygone reputation for hospitality than we actually practice hospitality these days.

And I want to pause right here and say I think he has especially in mind traveling believers here. The whole context is how you love the brethren. And so he has especially in mind traveling believers. And this would have been very practical because in the first century, inns were dirty, dangerous, immoral places. Think of the innkeepers in Les Mis. That's what innkeepers were often like and that's what inns were often like in the ancient world. You came out of those inns flee bitten, with your pockets empty, and maybe you were exposed to immorality because they were the place where the brothel often was. And that made hospitality of believers welcoming people into their home especially important. And my friends, it's important for us today. We live three blocks from a major Christian university with five thousand students. We are a half block from a major liberal arts institution. We are four blocks from the major teaching hospital in the state. Across the street from another major hospital. Down the street from yet another major hospital. We have a law school, seminary, and other colleges and universities in this town. We have ample opportunities to show hospitality in this congregation to Christians passing through and to non-believers, I might add. Are you deliberate in that?

Let me go on record giving thanks for Scottish Christians who took me into their homes when I was living six thousand miles from my parents in Edinburgh, Scotland, and let me just record right here thanks to Neil and Anne McTaggart of Holyrood Abbey Church in Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was what they call the session clark - the clerk of session of the Holyrood Abbey Church of Scotland and Neil and Anne took this American into their home and I have lost count and cannot remember how many Sundays I was in their home. And they put on a display of exactly what the author of Hebrews is talking about in Hebrews 13:2. Not only would they host me in their home, but Neil would go out visiting shut-ins in the afternoon and sometimes he would welcome me to come along with him and sometimes he would welcome me to stay at home and rest until the evening service. But what they did for my heart in those days is incalculable.

And my friends, there ought to be, young and old alike in our midst, that can give that same testimony of you. And I know that there are many of you here of whom that testimony can be given because I've talked to people that you've shown hospitality to. So to those of you who are showing hospitality like this, thank you! You are fulfilling Hebrews 13:2! For those of you who have not yet, let me say this word. If you do not plan to show hospitality you will not. The McTaggarts had extra place settings at their table at home every Sunday. And so Anne had to plan for extra food. And they went to Holyrood Abbey looking for people to invite home. You have to plan to show hospitality or the crush of life will keep you from doing it. And just let me say, the Lord's Day is the perfect day to do it. David Strain and I were talking about the fact that so many Americans are scared to death of a Scottish Sabbath. You've never lived until you've had a Scottish Sabbath. Isn't that right, David? You've never lived until you've experienced a Scottish Sabbath because it's filled with worship and praise of the Almighty God, fellowship with other believers, deeds of mercy and necessity, and rest and refreshment. There's nothing like it in the world. Make it a day filled with hospitality, saints of First Presbyterian Church.

DELIBERATELY MINISTER TO THOSE WHO

ARE IMPRISONED AND MISTREATED

Third and finally, look at verse 3. Then he says, "Remember those in prison as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body." In other words, be deliberate in cultivating a concern for and presence with and ministry to those who are imprisoned and mistreated. Now I think he especially has in mind believers who have been imprisoned and who are being mistreated, although certainly by application and extension, this verse extends to all kinds of prison ministry and all kinds of ministry to people who have been mistreated. But I think he has especially in mind believers who have been imprisoned and mistreated. And my friends, let me say especially to my young friends here today, you will, in your culture, have the opportunity to visit believers who have been imprisoned because of their testimony to Jesus. And you will, in your culture, have the opportunity to stand with believers who have been mistreated because of their testimony to Jesus. It's already beginning to happen in the news all around us. There are people who have lost their jobs and their businesses simply because they want to obey the Bible and the government has said, "You can't obey the Bible and have your business." And they've said, "Well then I'll just not have my business because I'm going to obey the Bible." And you will have the opportunity, in your culture, to stand with believers who have been imprisoned because they've said, "I'm standing with the Word not with the world."

But my friends, already, all around us, all around this world there are more persecuted and mistreated and imprisoned Christians than ever. Just a few days ago, dozens of your brothers and sisters in Christ were slaughtered in their worship service. From Pakistan across the Middle East we are seeing Christians targeted for destruction. We must be with them in solidarity! It's been interesting, hasn't it, that even the media has picked up on the fact that the Christian church in the United States has not seemed to care that dozens and dozens of believers in other countries have been slaughtered for the testimony of Jesus. This verse reminds us that we cannot be indifferent to believers who are imprisoned and mistreated. We must stand with them. Now that especially means right here. That especially means right here. And we need to cultivate that and be ready for that. And what is it? It's an expression, it's an application of brotherly love. If your child was in prison, you'd go visit your child in prison! If your friend was mistreated, you'd stand with your friend in the mistreatment! Think of your fellow Christians as your family and stand with them in those places. It's all an extension of love.

This whole passage is designed to call us to a comprehensive and practical expression of love in the Christian church. That is how you live as a sacrifice of praise to God. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, cultivate in us and continue us in a genuine and robust and practical love for our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, here in this congregation, in our fellow evangelical congregations in this city, with believers around this community and state and around the world, so that they will say, "Behold, how they love one another and glorify our Father who is in heaven." We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's sing about loving our family, loving the church, which is the institutional form of God's kingdom in this world. Number 353, "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord."

Receive God's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Honor Marriage - Hebrews 13:4

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be looking at the fourth verse today, but before we look at that verse I want to ask you to look back to Hebrews 13:1 and follow your eyes down the page to verse 4 and actually go farther to verse 5 so that you understand the flow of thought. The author of Hebrews is telling us how to live the Christian life. Much like the apostle Paul in the first eleven chapters of the book of Romans tells us the glorious theology of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and then follows that with a gigantic "therefore" in Romans 12, and from Romans 12 to 15 tells you how to live the Christian life in light of God's grace, so also the author of Hebrews has spent most of this book arguing that Jesus is better.

Hebrews 13: What to Love, and What Not to Love

But now, here especially in chapter 13, he's telling us how to live the Christian life in light of our better Savior. And he started, of course, in this chapter in verse 1 giving us a series of exhortations about love. And I'd like you to just look at what he says. First he says, "Let brotherly love continue." Then in verse 2 he says, "Show hospitality." In verse 3 he says, "Remember those who are in prison and those who are mistreated." In verse 4 he says, "Honor marriage," and in verse 5 he says, "Don't love money." Now pull back and get a big picture of what he's doing. He's saying love Christians, love strangers and guests, show love to people in prison - and I think he has there especially in mind believers who, for the sake of Christ, have been imprisoned. And my friends, there are hundreds and thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ in jails right now around this world because of the testimony of Jesus. Love Christians, love strangers and guests, love prisoners, love those who are mistreated - and again, I think he has in mind those who are being mistreated, those who are being hurt, those who are being persecuted because of their witness to Jesus Christ. Love Christians, love strangers and guests, love prisoners, love those who are mistreated, honor marriage, don't love money. Isn't that interesting? He's telling you what to love and what not to love!

A Timely word

That is hugely helpful in our materialistic, secularized, relativistic culture. We love money; we don't love marriage. When you look at our culture, we love money a lot - "Materialism-R-Us." Marriage not so much. And the author of Hebrews is saying turn that around. Think like a Christian. Think from your Bibles. Be out of sync with the world. Be in sync with the Word. The world values money. The world values materially. The world values stuff. We value marriage. Money is to be used for the glory of God but it's not to be loved and worshiped. When we have it we thank God for it and we use it well and we share it generously. When we don't have it we trust God to provide what we need. But we don't love it--ever. Marriage, ah - that we love! And our spouses especially we love. We hold it in honor. You see what he's doing here? He's saying to these Christians and to you and me, "I want you to have a view of how to live life that's derived not from your culture, not from the society, not from the prevailing cultural mores and norms, but what's drawn right out of Scripture. I want you to get your values, I want you to get your priorities, I want you to derive your ethics, I want you to get your morals not from the world but from the Word. I want that to be the shaping influence on you." And so we're going to zero-in on one specific exhortation that's part of this section of Hebrews 13 that's about what we ought to love. Hebrews 13:4.

Now before we look at it, there are three parts to this one verse. Be on the lookout for them. The first part is, "Let marriage be held in honor among all." The second part is, "Let the marriage bed be undefiled." The third part is, "God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." Those are the three parts of the passage that we're going to read. Let's pray before we hear God's Word.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and it is a timely Word but it is a heavy Word. This passage could be discouraging to faithful believers this morning. Lord, don't let it discourage a single, faithful believer. You don't mean Your Word to discourage a single, faithful believer. You mean it to encourage us. On the other hand, Lord, there could be some of us in this room that desperately need to hear this verse and we could just close our hearts off from it because, very frankly, it offends us in some way. Our own sensibilities may have been informed so much by our world and our culture, our time, our situation, that we don't want to hear it. Lord, help us to close our mouths, open our ears, hear Your Word and believe it. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it in Hebrews 13 verse 4:

"Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

This is such a timely passage. It was extremely relevant - and we'll see the context in which it was originally given in - it was extremely relevant for the first people who heard this book read, this sermon preached, or had this book before them in a scroll or in a binder and read it for themselves. It was very, very relevant for them and for situations that were going on in their culture. It is just as timely for us today. And what's the big message. The big message is this - God wants us to be out of sync with the world and in sync with His Word about marriage. We live in a world that does not honor marriage. For the foreseeable future, we are going to live in a world that does not honor marriage. And God is saying to us, "I don't want you to get your attitude or your practice of marriage from the world, from the culture. I want you to get it from the Book, from the Word. I want you to be out of step with the world; I want you to be in step with the Word." That's really huge.

I. Honor Marriage

A number of years ago, one of Anne's former professors, David Wells, said something that helped me understand this better than anything I'd ever heard. He said this. "Worldliness, worldliness makes sin look normal and righteousness look odd." Worldliness makes sin look normal and righteousness look odd. It's our job as Christians to reject worldliness and to understand that it is righteousness that is normal and that it is sin that is not only odd but offensive to God. And that's the battle that we face in this issue of marriage, isn't it? If you believe in marriage as God defines it in the Bible, you are looked upon as a bigot, as hateful, as narrow, as unloving, and perhaps as a homophobe. And I want to say, what I'm about to say in this message has nothing to do with partisan politics. It just has to do with the Bible. Marriage is pre-political. You understand that. No government invented marriage. Marriage existed before there were governments. God invented marriage. Jesus said that God invented marriage. In Mark, Jesus said that God invented marriage and He points us right back to Genesis chapter 2 and the last verses of that chapter where Moses talks about a man leaving his father and mother and cleaving unto his wife. Jesus said that God invented marriage, and because marriage is pre-political, no government has the right or authority to redefine it; no government. Marriage is the permanent union of one man and one woman. That is what it is; that is what it always has been. That is what it always will be. It is un-redefinable. Jesus had a position on that. And to say that is not to be hateful towards people with same-sex attraction.

A God-ordained means of Deepest Joy

I want to commend to you a book that's just been written by a Christian who is a Bible-believing evangelical who struggles with same-sex attracted. His name is Sam Allberry and in that book he says this. "I studied the Scriptures from cover to cover and I realized that what the Bible says about marriage and what the Bible says about sexuality is not some sort of collection of isolated texts. It's woven into the very fabric of God's good plan for us so that marriage between one man and one woman is good for us." It's not that God is a gigantic killjoy in the sky, just waiting to rain on your parade. It is that when He says something is to be a certain way in His Word He says that for our joy. And he says it's not to be another way - for our joy. You cannot reject God's Word and have deep joy.

That's one of the reasons I love - we just had a wedding ceremony at the church last night. We honored marriage. And I love that in the marriage service that's prescribed in our Book of Church Order it requires us to say every time we have a marriage that marriage was instituted both for the glory of God and for our happiness. Isn't that beautiful? Not for the glory of God so that you're miserable for the rest of your life. Or it's all about your happiness; who cares about the glory of God? No, it's for the glory of God and for your happiness together. You can't separate that. What God hath joined together let no man put asunder. His glory; your happiness. Because what God commands in the Bible is for the joy of all peoples. And when we reject it, just like Adam and Eve, we don't get more joy we get not only less joy, we get no joy. You get superficial sham joy for a while, sometimes. You don't get deep joy.

Honoring a God-Ordained Definition

So the definition of marriage is not about being hateful. First of all, it's about being Biblical. I didn't think this up. I didn't. Young people, for the rest of your lives you are going to live in a culture that looks at you with a squint if you say, "I think marriage is between one man and one woman - period." This world's going to look at you like you're nuts or you're hateful. And I want you to remember you didn't make this up. This existed thousands of years before you were a gleam in your daddy's eye! And it came from God's Word and you want to honor that. You want to honor marriage. You want to honor marriage by accepting God's definition of what marriage is. Understand this - there's no such thing as same-sex marriage. That's like saying, "I'd like some oxygenless-oxygen, please. I'd like some hot-cold please. I'd like to see more peace-loving war-mongers." To say, "same-sex marriage" is to say a contradiction. It's literally an oxymoron. It does not exist; it cannot exist because God has not left that for our definition. One of the ways that you honor marriage, my young friends, is by accepting what He says. I don't want you to be angry and mean, nor do I want you to be indifferent and defeatist. I want you to be Biblical and happy because you believe what the Bible says because you want joy for other people. You're not there to rain on their parade; you're there to be a blessing to them. Does that make it hard for your friends and your relationship with them when they themselves, all they've ever known is same-sex attraction and it sounds to them like you're saying to them that they can never have love? Sure it makes it hard. Sure it makes it hard. You don't think that I have dear friends who I love with all my heart that I have to work through that with in my relationship? You don't think I have that? I do. You're just going to have it more and more openly. And you're going to have this choice - do I stand with the world or do I stand with the Word? Do I go with my experience or do I go with "thus saith the Lord?" That's the bottom line my friends. You can't honor marriage and redefine it.

Disclaimer: There's more than one way we can dishonor marriage

But let me quickly say, there are lots of other ways that we can dishonor marriage without going so far as the Supreme Court. We can dishonor marriage with our words. Men, have you ever been in a group of men and the phrase comes up, "Well where's the old ball and chain?" You mean my wife? Women, ever been at lunch and a husband comes up - "Men, can't live with them; can't shoot them!" We want to honor marriage in the way we speak about it. The wives of this congregation should know that even when their husbands are not around their husbands are speaking words of respect and esteem about them. And the husbands ought to know that as well. There ought to be a culture in which we magnify the meaning of marriage, in which we show that even in our words we uphold its preciousness. And let me say, my friends, that holds true even and especially if you are in a hard marriage. I know you a whole lot better than I knew you seventeen years ago and there are some sweet marriages in this congregation and there are some hard ones. And you know what, brothers and sisters? I've learned from both of them and I've had my soul blessed by both of them. I love it with you've been together for forty years and you still love one another so much that you can't stand it. I love that. And I love it when you've been together for thirty years and it's been hard every year but you're not giving up. And you've almost lost hope that it will ever get better but you're not going anywhere. God blesses me through you in both of those circumstances and everything in between. We want to honor marriage in this congregation.

II. Honor Purity

Second, we want to honor the marriage bed. That's what the author of Hebrews says. Honor marriage, honor purity, heed the warning. Honor marriage - verse 4, first part. Honor purity - there's the second part. Look at what he says. "Let the marriage bed be undefiled." Now this congregation is either in Palestine, maybe in Rome. Commentators argue, but it's definitely predominantly Jewish Christians. So these people were ethnically Jewish and previously religiously Jewish and now they're Christians. Because of that we know that they had a pretty strong healthy marriage culture. I mean look, the marriage/divorce rate in the 1st century in the Jewish culture was a lot better than it is now. They would blush at our divorce rate. Nevertheless, even in Jesus' time, there were rabbis who were undermining marriage. There was one particular rabbinic school that said men had the right to reject their wives if their wives displeased them. Hello! That kind of opens the barn door, doesn't it? And Jesus went after that hammer and tong because He saw that that was the camel's nose under the tent to destroy a marriage culture. And my friends, ladies and gentlemen, we live in that! Nothing helps you to stay together in this culture. The law doesn't help you, the Supreme Court doesn't help you, the culture doesn't help you - nothing helps you! I hope the church helps you a little bit. I hope your Christian friends help you a little bit. But there's just nothing to hold back the impulses to do whatever you want to do. Jesus saw that coming and He fought it. And this pastor is probably dealing with that too because these people were out of that Jewish culture and maybe they've been exposed to that sort of laissez-faire view about marriage and divorce.

A Libertine Response

On the other hand, they were in a dominant majority culture that was a lot like ours where anything goes. Bless their hearts, even the Romans had not redefined marriage the way that we have done, but beyond that, they pretty much let you do anything you wanted to do. You could be a married senator and have an eleven year old boy as your companion. You could have as many concubines as you wanted to have; totally legal. And Christians were trying to live the Christian life in a culture where this was going on everywhere. We know it was crazy because Paul talked about a guy who was in the Corinthian church who was in a relationship with his step-mother. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Don't get your ideas about purity from the culture around you! God has a different set of orders! Keep the marriage bed pure."

An Ascetic Response

And then, and then, doesn't this always happen - you get one extreme over there and what happens? The opposite reaction. Then there are people who were saying, "Well if you really want to be godly you just need to give up on sex altogether." They would argue this in marriage. "If you really want to be godly, if you really want to know God, give up on sex in marriage." Or, others would say you should never get married in the first place. You should abstain from all sexual pleasures. I mean it was a crazy world. It's a crazy world now. And into that context this author says, "Honor the marriage bed. Keep it pure and undefiled."

Honoring marriage before and apart from it

How can we do that? Two ways. You can do this before and apart from marriage. If you're single this morning you can help honor the marriage bed, even if you're never marriage, by the way that you relate to your friends, especially to the opposite sex, and especially to those who are married. Because people who are married, eighty percent of them, think that they married the wrong person. And they think, "If I had just married the right person it would be great," and you're just being encouraging to them, you're just being comforting to them, you're just letting them cry on your shoulder a little bit. And then the thought enters their mind, "You're so understanding. You understand my problems. I wish my husband understood my problems like you understand my problems. I wish my wife understood my problems like you understand my problems. Maybe you're the one." You can honor the marriage bed and keep it pure and undefiled by not allowing that fantasy to begin. And sometimes when you're in my office and you're sharing with me the deep things of your heart and the troubles of your marriage there's a little bubble above my head while I'm being sympathetic to you and trying to help you, and I really am trying to help you, and that little bubble says, "Boy I hope they never find out what a bad husband I am. Please Lord, don't let them go and ask Anne." Because I really do want to help you, but I don't want to act like I've got it all together. And if you were just with somebody like me it would be better. You see, that's one of the lies that Satan uses.

Honoring marriage by a personal commitment to purity

You can keep the marriage bed pure before marriage by being committed to purity yourself. In our culture, it is expected that immorality will happen before marriage and it's even condoned in Christian settings. When I first got here to Jackson, a church officer in a Presbyterian church gave a key to his son on the night of the senior prom and said, "Son, I know that you're going to have sex with your girlfriend. Don't do it in a car on a deserted lane. I've gotten a hotel room for you." There is such an expectation that that's just going to happen and we make little jokes about it and we turn a blind eye to it and sometimes, God help us, we facilitate it. You have no idea what that does to men and women many years later. There are people in this room who've committed that sin and through tears and broken hearts have repented and they've come all the way home to their Savior and the Lord has changed their life and the Lord has even blessed them in their marriages. But they would stand up before you and they would say, "Do not go where I went. There are consequences that I pay for every day." You can honor the marriage bed before and apart from ever being married and you can honor the marriage bed in marriage. There may be someone here today planning to commit adultery, right now. Please read the next phrase in this verse. Your soul is too precious to put everything at risk.

III. Heed the Warning

There's a third thing I want you to see here - heed the warning. Honor marriage, honor purity, heed the warning. Be certain of God's judgment. Look at the words - "For God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." Now I want you to understand this very clearly. God is not saying that adultery and fornication is the unpardonable sin. That is very good news because there are very many of us who could not be pardoned if it were the unpardonable sin. And I don't say that on my own authority; I say it on the authority of Scripture. The apostle Paul says, as he writes to the Corinthians, "Some of you were adulterers, but you were washed and sanctified and glorified." We have men and women in our congregation who have committed adultery and through grievous tears have come to repentance and God, in His kindness, has restored their marriages. But none of them would counsel you to take this word of warning lightly. They can show the scars of their hearts to you. And so the author of Hebrews is saying heed God's warning. Listen to the definite language - "God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." That doesn't mean that there is no forgiveness for the repentant. What it means is, for those who will not turn, for those who persist in that sin, there is certain and terrifying judgment. And for all there are consequences. Heed the warning.

A Picture of Permanence and Encouragement to Press On

The world is not going to help you honor marriage so we have to decide - are we going to be in sync with the world or are we going to be in sync with the Word? I want to apologize to you for not doing a better job of honoring marriage in my time with you. Dr. Tom Elkin, our Minister of Marriage and Family Life, just a year or so ago in minister's meeting one Friday morning said, "You know what? We don't make a big enough deal about the people in our congregation who have been married thirty, forty, fifty years. We ought to draw more attention to that." And I think he's right and I've done a bad job of that. And it's one of the things I think we need to do a better job. Not to discourage people - not to discourage single people who have longed to be married and have never been married. Not to discourage divorced people - because there are divorced people in our congregation, some of whom, for no fault of their own, some of whom are the most godly people that I've ever met. Not to discourage people in hard marriages as if there's this blissful state that a very tiny chosen few experience and they've been locked out at the door. But to encourage all of us, all of us, that there are some who say "I do" and they "I do" until they die. And don't you feel like you need that sometimes?

I was stopped by a lady at the door after the first service this morning. She said, "I've been married to my husband for sixty-nine years. I never dated anybody but him. We fell in love in high school." And she said, "I'm still in love with him." One of our elder emeritus stopped me and he said, "I never dated anyone but my wife" and even when she had forgotten who he was, he loved her with tears. I need that. I need that. I need that encouragement. We want to cultivate a culture here that honors marriage. My friends, you have no idea how radical and powerful that is. You don't have to form a political action group, you don't have to pick at anybody, you just have to stay with your spouse and not give up and keep on going. Who knows, who knows, how you may glorify God and help your brothers and sisters.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Use it in our hearts and lives. Forgive us of our sins. Help us where we have no strength. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's sing number 720 together because there is blessing in a happy marriage and home.

Receive now God's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Don't Fall in Love with Money - Hebrews 13:5-6

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me again to Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be looking at verses 5 and 6. Now already scanning the congregation, I note a number of people who are here tonight who were not here this morning, so if those who were here this morning will bear with me for just a very brief moment I'll remind everybody to look back to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 1 and allow your eyes to run down all the way through verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 and get the flow of argument. The author of Hebrews is telling us how to live the Christian life, or to borrow a phrase from later in the chapter, how to live as a "sacrifice pleasing to God." If Paul calls us to be living sacrifices, the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 13 calls us to live as sacrifices pleasing to God. How do you do that? He's telling you in this passage. First he says let brotherly love continue, show hospitality to strangers, remember those who are in prison and who are mistreated, let marriage be held in honor, keep your life free from the love of money. So if you follow the argument of these specific exhortations is comes out something like this. Love Christians, love strangers, love prisoners, love the mistreated, honor marriage, don't love money! This is about what we're supposed to love. The author of Hebrews is asking us to think about life from the standpoint of the teaching of God's Word. That's one reason why we sang Psalm 1, "Blessed is the Man that Fearing God," because the blessed man, the righteous man, is the one who has built his life on God's Word. And the author of Hebrews is asking us to base our outlook on life on the Word, not derive it from the world. He wants us to be in sync with the Word of God and out of sync with the world.

A Timely Word

Now this passage that's before us tonight about the love of money is very, very timely and it hits close to home. And I'm preaching as much to myself as I am to you. This is a standing issue in the Christian church and it really ought to shock you that the author of Hebrews is addressing this to a 1st century Jewish Christian congregation. I mean think of it. Even in a time of persecution where many Christians were, because of their faithfulness to Christ, losing their possessions, enduring persecution, and from the underclasses. He's still worrying about the love of money! He's still encouraging them not to give in to a preoccupation with, an inordinate desire for, a placing of the treasure of their hearts on money. That's amazing, especially in the light of what he's already said about them. Would you turn back to chapter 10? Look in verse 34 in Hebrews chapter 10. "You had compassion on those in prison" - isn't that interesting? He's started this chapter out by telling them to have compassion on those in prison after already saying that they're doing it! And then listen to what he says next - "and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property." There are people in this congregation that he is preaching to, that he's writing to, who because of the testimony of Jesus, because they love the Lord, because they're basing their life on the Word, they've lost property! And he's still telling them don't love money!

A Sobering Perspective

That ought to have your attention because by comparison, we are fantastically wealthy. We are far - I don't know this congregation at all personally. I only know it through the Word. I don't know what the condition of the congregation was in terms of its material wealth - how many people came from families with assets, how many people had jobs that allowed them to live at a higher standard of living, how many of them were impoverished. I don't know that. You can derive some things, you can guess some things; I don't know. I do know our congregation and I do know our country. If this congregation had to be warned against the love of money, how much more do we? If you make $50,000 a year, there's a total of $50,000 of income coming into your household a year, you are in the top 50% of income earners in the United States of America and you are in the top 0.28% of income earners in the entire world, if there's a total of $50,000 coming into your home this year. If you make $89,000, if $89,000 are coming into your home, you are in the top 25% of income earners in the United States and you are in the top 0.08% of income earners in the entire world. If you make $89,000 a year, there are only a few million people out of seven billion that make as much as you do in the entire world.

A Standing Issue

So this issue is a standing issue. It's a standing issue in the Christian church and it's one of the great spiritual challenges of the Christian life. C. H. Spurgeon, our favorite dead, Baptist preacher, once said, "There is no trial like affluence." There is no trial like affluence. And we have been blessed with great material possessions. And let me say this. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that. I am thankful every time that poll comes out every year and Mississippi is right at the top as the most generous state in the nation in terms of charitable giving. I kind of puff up my chest - "Yeah, I'm here in Mississippi!" And did you know that Jackson, Mississippi is the most generous giving non-Mormon or non-Roman Catholic city in the country. Did you know that? Christians in Jackson, Mississippi give a larger percentage of their income to charitable work than any other non-Mormon and one Roman Catholic city in the entire nation. You're in the top ten. You may be closer to the top five. And I'm in a very generous congregation. There are other congregations that give more on a percentage basis and even on a per capita basis, but there're not many. And I'm thankful for that.

And so I know all of us know something of the lessons that are being taught in this passage. But if the author of Hebrews had to say this to people who had had their property plundered because of the testimony of Jesus, I want to have my ears wide open to what he has to say to me! And that's what we're going to do tonight. We're going to consider God's Word, and once again, the author of Hebrews is asking us to think about the world from the standpoint of the Word, rather than copying the attitude of the world. He knows that it's hard for us not to have the world's attitudes and priorities and outlooks kind of get into our pores and seep into our veins and cloud our vision and corrupt our commitments and our values. And so he brings to bear the Word of God. Literally he quotes from passages of Moses in the Psalms to drive home truth about our attitude toward the use of money.

So let's give attention to God's Word tonight and as we do so I want you to be on the lookout for four things. First of all, two exhortations in verse 5. We're just going to look at verses 5 and 6 tonight. Two exhortations from verse 5 - one about the love of money; the second about contentment. Be on the lookout for that. Then, I love the author of Hebrews - he doesn't just tell you what to do; he tells you how to do it. Isn't that kind of God to do that? He doesn't just say, "Do this; don't do that." He says, "This is how you do what I've asked you to do." And I want you to see two things - one in verse 5 and one in verse 6 - that he says to help us know how to do what he's asked us to do with regard to the love of money and contentment. First, he tells us something about God's providence, verse 5, and then he tells us something about God's sovereignty. So love of money, contentment, providence, and sovereignty. Just be on the lookout for those four things as we read God's Word. And before we do, let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Father, this is Your Word. We're thankful to be in it again tonight. I thank You for the many people in this congregation that have been an example to us all in the use of money and in their attitudes. Lord, it's my prayer that You would raise up a generation of Christians behind them that have the same Biblical outlook, the same life free of money love, the same generosity and commitment to the work of the Lord, the church, and the kingdom that their forbearers in the faith, who have lived and served and ministered in this congregation so long have had. Raise it up, Lord, a generation to come behind a generous generation and continue that legacy. I pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it in Hebrews 13 verses 5 and 6:

"Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'"

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The Puritans used to say that a Christian loves the Lord and uses the world, but a worldling loves the world and uses the Lord. That is, that you can tell much about a person's spiritual state from what their heart, their affections are set on. Are they set on the Lord? Is He their treasure? Or are they set on the world - mammon, stuff, material blessings, money? Well the author of Hebrews in this passage wants us to love the Lord and use the world rather than using the Lord to get us the world that we love. And by the way, that is one of the great, great mistakes of the health and wealth gospel. It has turned Christianity into using the Lord to get something that you want more than the Lord, which is material blessing and physical health and general prosperity and influence and reputation. The author of Hebrews says that's worldly. That's not the way a Christian thinks! That's how a worldling thinks! A Christian wants to love the Lord and use the world. Deploy the resources that God has given to her, to him. Thank God for the resources that God has given to her and him! Use generously the resources that God has given to her and to him but love the Lord, take delight in the Lord, treasure the Lord, instead of using the Lord to get us the world that we love. That's what this passage is about and I'd like you to see four things that we learn here tonight.

I. Live Life Free from Love of Money

The first thing is the first exhortation that we encounter in the passage that's in verse 5 - "Keep your life free from love of money." The exhortation is for us to live life money free. In a time of decision, you will go with what you love the most, and so if a challenge comes because of the testimony of the Lord Jesus that puts you in the position of losing your material blessings, you'll go with what you love the most. And so the author is saying, "Don't love money," even to a congregation in which there are people who have had their possession plundered because of their fidelity to Jesus! That's huge for us, my friends; that's huge for us. Now let me just pause right here and say, notice he does not say, "Money is bad." Just like in the previous passage he doesn't say, "Sex is bad." The problem - it's not sex; it's lust. The problem is not money, it's the love of money. How does 1 Timothy 6:10 most frequently get misquoted? "Money is the root of all evil." Have you ever heard anybody quote Paul in 1 Timothy 6:10 that way? He doesn't say that! He does not say money is the root of all evil. It gets quoted that way. He says, "For the love of money is a (or the) root of all kinds of evil." That is a far more helpful statement and it also has the benefit of being true.

And notice again the prohibition here is for the love of money. The problem's not money; it's how we love it. It's fixing our hopes and our affections on it. And so what he's saying here is, if what you really care about is your material security and that material security is threatened because of your fidelity to Jesus, what are you going to give up when the threat comes? He knows that those who love the world will not stand firm in a storm which asks them to choose you this day whom you will serve - the Lord Jesus or your money. If you love the world then you'll choose and it won't be Jesus. This is not a theoretical question for us today, even here in the United States of America. We are already seeing Christians in our culture lose their jobs and businesses because of their fidelity to Scripture. Do not think that this will not be practical for you and me. And he's just saying before that test ever comes, you've got to be clear in your heart about what you love - do you love Jesus or do you love the world? Keep your life free from the love of money.

II. Cultivate Contentment

Second, notice what he goes on to say - "and be content with what you have." In other words he says cultivate contentment. Not only do you need to look at your heart and ask, "What do I really love? What's really my treasure?" but I need to ask, "Am I content in the condition in which I find myself?" This is not saying all ambition is bad. He's not saying to businessmen and women it's wrong to want to have a larger yield next year than this year. He's not saying that at all. It's a question of attitude. And once again the issue is this - our contentment is a witness to our brothers and sisters and to the world that we treasure Jesus more than anything. If we're discontent, clearly we think that contentment is only going to come from something that we don't have. We already have Jesus if we are believers. He must not be enough! So contentment says to the world, "Jesus is my treasure. I've got food, I've got some clothes on my back - I'm good to go!"

And of course the Bible talks about this all the time. You remember Ecclesiastes 5:10? "Whoever loves money never has enough." Boy is that true! "Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income." What you have doesn't satisfy and so you think that more will satisfy so you get more and guess what? It doesn't satisfy because God didn't make you to be built up by that. Kent Hughes says this. "A boatload of discontented materialists (lovers of money) will not do well in the coming storms. Those who always want more will turn away from God when their Christianity brings material subtraction rather than addition. On the other hand, those who are content who have found their ultimate treasure in the unflagging presence and care of God will sail on. Contentment says to our fellow Christians and to the world that Christ is with us, Christ is for us, and Christ is enough, more than enough." Hallelujah, all I have is Christ, and He is enough! But you have to cultivate that. Isn't it interesting? "Be content." He's exhorting you to contentment. He knows that that's something that has to be cultivated. The Puritans used to write whole books on that because they know that contentment doesn't come easy. So Jeremiah Burroughs writes, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment and gives you two hundred pages of Biblical instruction on how to fight for contentment.

III. How? Believe God's Providence

But in this passage, the author of Hebrews does a little of that himself - not two hundred pages worth but a verse and a half. In verse 5, the very end, and verse 6, he offers two Scriptural arguments to help you not be captive to the love of money and to help you cultivate contentment. See the question we ought to be asking when we hear him say, "Don't love money. Live life love-of-money free," and when we hear him say, "Be content. Cultivate contentment," our question ought to be, "How? I need some help!" And he says, "Right with you. Here is it." Point one - believe God's providence. Believe God's providence. Look at verse 5. "For he has said" - now that's right on the heels of, "Keep your life free from the love of money; be content with what you have" - "For he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" Now isn't that something? That quote either comes from Deuteronomy 31:6 and 8 or from Joshua 1:5. Isn't that interesting? Because what had been a continual struggle of the children of Israel in the wilderness? "Is God going to provide for us? Lord, You brought us out of Egypt and we're going to starve to death! Lord, You brought us out of Egypt and we're going to go thirsty! There's no water out here in the wilderness!" And over and over what does God do? He provided.

And so the author of Hebrews says, "Now let's just look back at Moses and Joshua and let's remember that the Lord said, 'I will not leave you nor forsake you. I'll be present with you and I'll provide for you. I will not leave you - I will be present. I will not forsake you - I will provide for you. I will give you what you need.'" Remember what Paul says in Romans 8:32? "He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?" Everything we need! The author says until you believe in God's providence you'll never ever master the contentment thing. And my friends, you're never done learning God's providence. Even preachers who preach God's providence can fail to believe in it. You see, that's why he's speaking to people who have already lost their goods because they love Jesus in saying, "Don't love money," because that fight is never over in this world! Isn't that encouraging? You're not weird! You're normal! The fact that you're having the same fight this year that you had in the second year that you were a Christian - you're not weird; you're normal! And that's why the Book keeps coming back to you and telling you sometimes the same thing over and over again because you need to hear it. Trust God's providence.

IV. How? Believe in God, your Sovereign Help

The second thing - look at verse 6. "So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'" Now he's quoting Psalm 118. And one of the great passages that calls the Lord our help, our helper - we sing about it all the time - Psalm 90. "Our God, our Help in Ages Past." It's all over the Old Testament, but guess what? This is the only time in the New Testament that the Lord is called your Help. Earlier in the book he's called Jesus, your Help. Isn't that sweet? You see how concerned He is to help you in your fight against the love of money and in the battle for contentment? He reminds you, "I'm your Helper." "I will not fear; what can man do to me?" We sang about it in the very first hymn. Did you miss it? Go back to 402. This is one to memorize. Brister, you've got it memorized. Brister's quoted this hymn to me I don't know how many times - maybe even verses that aren't even in here! Listen to what - look at just the first stanza. "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide!" What's he asking for? He's asking for the Lord's presence. And then listen to what he says. "When other helpers fail and other comforts flee" - who is the Lord? "He is the help of the helpless." And what does he ask Him to do? "Abide with me." Presence, providence, sovereignty, because the Lord is our Help and nothing in the world can challenge Him. "What can man do to me?"

There is a story that the great preacher, John Chrysostom, was called before the emperor for challenging the emperor's authority. And the emperor said to John Chrysostom, "If you don't stop saying what you're saying I'll banish you." And John Chrysostom said, "This is my Father's world. Where are you going to send me?" And then the emperor said, "Okay, I'll kill you." And he said, "No you won't. My life is hid with Christ in God." And then he said, "Well I'll drive you away from all your friends." And he said, "I have such a friend in heaven who will never leave me or forsake me." And then he said, "Well I'll take away all your possessions." And he said, "No you won't. The Lord is my treasure." Do you hear what John Chrysostom said? He said, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man, even the emperor, do to me?" That's a man who's content. And the author of Hebrews is calling us to the same contentment.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Work it into our hearts. Make this show, really Lord, make it show in the way that we approach our possessions, the way that we approach our reputation, the way that we approach our position, our influence, the world's attitude towards us. Grant that we would so believe in Your presence and Your providence, in Your character, in Your sovereignty, that we would not fear but that we would be content. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you stand for God's benediction?

Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, until the daybreak and the shadows flee away. Amen.

Those Who Led You - Hebrews 13:7

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be looking today at just verse 7. This might be called, "Finishing-Well Sunday." I was telling the elders just before we came in that by my calculations I've been able to have the privilege of serving the Lord's Supper in this congregation along with them 137 times in the last seventeen years. And this will be my 138th and last as your pastor, though I trust the Lord will give us many opportunities to commune together in the years to come. And one of our ruling elders emeritus said to me a few weeks ago, "Ligon, sometime in your last few months with us would you preach on finishing well?" Well that's actually the topic of Hebrews 13:7 and it's also going to be the topic of my message tonight from 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 6 to 22 - "How Faithfulness Looks at the End." How do you finish well? Paul shows us tonight; the author of Hebrews is showing us today. How does a Christian finish well? How do you live the Christian life all the way to the end and cross the finish line? That's the topic of the message today.

And as we read God's Word in this one little verse, I want you to be on the lookout for three things. There are actually three exhortations in this one little verse. The first exhortation is - remember. The second exhortation is - consider. The third exhortation is - imitate. Or so that rhymes, I'm going to say it this way - Continue to remember, consider the result, and copy the faith. So be on the lookout for those as we read God's Word. And let's ask His blessing in prayer before we do so.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We thank You for it. We ask that You would open our eyes to understand it, to believe it, and to live it out. We pray, Heavenly Father, that You would build us up in grace, by Your Spirit, through the Word, and that we would receive the Word for what it is - not the words of men but the very Word of God. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it in Hebrews 13:7:

"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Our Leaders: Examples to help us persevere in the Christian Life

The author of Hebrews is telling us in this little verse how to finish well. He's telling us something that will significantly aid us in persevering in the Christian life. You will remember in this book that has so often focused us on the theme that Jesus is better, that one of the prevailing pastoral concerns that the author of Hebrews has is that we would keep on believing, that we would keep on believing in Jesus, that we would persevere in the faith, that we would endure to the end. And the older you get in the Christian life, the more that exhortation makes sense, because the Christian life doesn't necessarily get easier as you go on. New challenges arise that you've never encountered before. Old challenges return with new intensity. Discouragements can surround you and even into your own heart. And in that context the author of Hebrews wants to give us Biblical encouragement for persevering to the end, for enduring to the end, for crossing the finish line. And here's what he says. He says that he wants us to do three things - Remember, consider, and imitate the Bible-speaking, faith-fueled living, and finish line-crossing godly Christian leaders who've led us in the faith and who have now finished the race. Did you get that? All of that is in there. It's right there in verse 7. He wants you to remember, consider, and imitate the Bible-speaking - "they spoke to you the Word of God;" the faith-fueled living - "consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith;" and finish line-crossing - "the outcome of their faith." The Bible-speaking, faith-fueled living, finish line-crossing godly Christian leaders who led you in the faith and who have now finished the race. In other words, in order to encourage you to cross the finish line, look to the leaders who led you with the Word of God and they have crossed the finish line. Look at their lives, look at what they believed, look at how they lived, look at how they finished, and be encouraged and copy them, imitate them.

I. Continue to Remember

So let's break that apart and look at three things in this passage. The first thing is for us to continue to remember. Look at the first part of verse 7. "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God." He is exhorting us to continue to remember our faithful shepherds who preached the Bible to us. We are here being called to a proper regard for and ongoing remembrance of those who first instructed us in the faith. They are here styled, "those who led," that is, spiritual shepherds, leaders, pastors. And I want you to note four things about them. First of all, they faithfully exercised the ministry of the Word. Look at the language. "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God." Their ministry was not their own ideas, their own opinions; it was the Word of God. They were teaching you the Bible. Secondly, they lived consistently with their faith - "consider the outcome of their way of life." They practiced what they preached. Third, they were personally known to the congregation. He says, "Remember them." Now you can't remember somebody that you never knew. So the very fact that he says "remember" means that you had a personal relationship with them. And then fourth, notice they've already finished their course on earth, faith intact. Maybe that means not just that they've moved on to plant another church; maybe it means they've already been translated to glory; they've gone home to be with Jesus.

And notice, by the way, my friends, he doesn't say, "Remember your leader." He says, "Remember your leaders." You know we live in a day and age of Christian personality cults where Christians will follow one figure and that one figure will be your spiritual hero, your spiritual leader. Notice it's not "Remember your leader." It's, "Remember your leaders." I serve here with nine other ministers and seventy-something elders, and I love the fact that you are encouraged to follow your leaders. First Presbyterian Church has never been built on one man, even though the Lord has faithfully given us for 175 years plus, godly pastors to preach the Word of God. First Presbyterian Church has had a succession of faithful leaders. And here, just like that, in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7, we're called to remember our leaders. And the present tense of that exhortation, "remember," indicates that we're to continue to remember. We are to remember with affection and thanksgiving. We are to continue to learn from them.

A Legacy of Godly Leadership

And so I want to pause and I want to speak about three leaders that the Lord has given this church - John Reed Miller, Don Patterson, and Jim Baird. Their ministries started sixty-two years ago. Reed Miller was called by this congregation in 1951, had probably preached a little in this church in 1951, came in 1952 as the minister. And the interesting this is, I knew all three of my predecessors. I knew them. I didn't just know about them; I knew them. That's a real blessing. Now that's not the usual in a church where pastors are there for two or three years and then they're gone, but in a church where the ministry of those three men stretched back sixty-two years, that's pretty interesting. The interesting thing is, by the way, there are people sitting right in front of me, and maybe out there too, who can remember back five ministers in this church to Dr. Hutton. There are people in this room today who were baptized by Dr. Hutton. So you can go back not only to Reed Miller but to Girard Lowe and then to J. B. Hutton. But I want to pause for a minute and I want to think about the faithful ministry because that's what the author of Hebrews asks us to do. Even though the Word of God is the most important thing - the most important thing is that they spoke the Word of God - he doesn't say, "Remember the word of God that you heard from your leaders;" although he wants you to do that. He says, "Remember your leaders." Why? Because the way they lived can encourage you and the emphases of their ministries can strengthen you.

John Reed Miller

Now we could say many things about John Reed Miller, but one of the things that always comes to my mind as I remember him is that he was a defender of the faith. He was a herald of the truth. He lived in a time when there were many people in pulpits across this land compromising the authority of the Word of God and the purity of doctrine, and Reed Miller stood on the truth of the inspired, inerrant Word of God and he preached it. And he set his face like flint into the wind while many people in the culture around him were caving in on truth. He was a defender of the truth. So he propounded the Gospel message of the truth.

Don Patterson

And then Don Patterson who followed him, again, you could say many things about Don Patterson. He was the chairman of the committee that brought the Presbyterian Church in America into being. He was a preacher of the Gospel. But when I think about Don Patterson, I think of an advocate for missions. That man had world missions in his bloodstream! Now this church has been committed to world missions for a long time. If you go back to the minutes of the Session of this congregation at the turn of the 20th century, in the late 1890's and the early 1900's, you can see an emphasis by both pastor and elders of the importance of supporting world missionaries. And in Reed Miller's time we started a world missions conference. But Don Patterson took it up a notch. In fact, when he retired from First Presbyterian Church do you know what he did? He became a special envoy of our denomination's missions agency, the PCA Mission to the World, and he traveled the world encouraging missionaries and preaching mission conferences at churches to encourage them to support missionaries. And so he was committed to the Gospel mission.

Jim Baird

And then my immediate predecessor, Jim Baird, you could say a lot about Jim. He was one of the well-known preachers of the evangelical party of the Southern Presbyterian Church and of course one of the well-known preachers in the PCA. He was certainly one of our founding fathers. He was a vice-chairman of that committee that Don Patterson chaired that brought the PCA into being. He was a discipler of men. He walked into a room and he attracted strong, godly men who would lead in churches. He just had that gift about him. And he had an emphasis on youth. He understood that if you didn't pay attention to the youth of the church then it compromised the future ministry of a church. But one thing I think about Jim Baird is he had a special love for all Christians. If you look on your Lord's Supper panel, one of the things that we're supposed to meditate on as we come to the Lord's Table is a special love for all Christians. Jim Baird had that. Now you couldn't ever doubt that Jim Baird was a Presbyterian. He was very, very conscious that he was from Scottish Presbyterian stock, even though he was the only member of his family born here in the United States; all his other siblings were born in Scotland. He even pronounced certain names like they're pronounced in Scotland. Bill Moore and I have joked about that in the past. He would say, "Moore. Bill Moore." He had these Scottish pronunciations that would suddenly come out of his mouth. He was a Presbyterian but he loved all Christians. And here in Mississippi where Christians had been divided in the civil rights movement, he knew that the solution was not the social gospel; it was the Gospel. And that's why he was involved in Mission Mississippi because he knew that the Gospel would bring Bible-believing Christians together whether they were red, yellow, black, or white. And he was very brave in expressing that special love for all Christians.

There are so many things that we could remember about the faithful ministry of these men and all I've tried to do is emulate them. I've tried to not mess up their legacy because we've been given a faithful legacy by these men and we ought to remember them and thank God for them and we ought to emulate them. And that's where I want to go next.

II. Consider the Result

If you'll look at the second thing in verse 7 - "consider the outcome of their way of life." In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying, "Consider the result of your spiritual leaders' lives. Carefully observe how they live. Take careful notes of how they finish. Reflect on the manner of their living, the way they live, the way they die, the way they finish the race." You see, that's a key emphasis of the whole book of Hebrews. You've got some Christians in this congregation who are wavering. They're thinking about turning back. And he says, "No, no, no. Look at your spiritual leaders. They didn't turn back. They crossed the finish line. They kept believing in Jesus to the very end." And the author of Hebrews wants you to cross the finish line, and he wants you to cross the finish line by believing the Gospel, trusting in Jesus. He wants you to think about, carefully consider, reflect upon how your spiritual leaders lived and finished. And note that it is assumed here that true Christian leaders will live lives that reflect their faith, what they teach. In other words, they will practice what they preach.

Many of you have heard of the famous liberal theologian, Paul Tillich, who taught for many years at the University of Chicago. There wasn't a clause of the Apostle's Creed that that man didn't deny. But he was revered in academic circles. When he died and they went into his office and pulled out the drawers of his desk, they were stuffed with pornography. And his wife held him in contempt because she knew what he was really like. He might have been revered in the ivy covered halls of the University, here and in Europe, but she knew what he was really like. One thing I can say about my predecessors - Reed Miller, Don Patterson, Jim Baird - they were, and in Jim's case, are, the real deal. What you see is what you get. What they preach is how they live. And my friends, that ought to encourage you. Sham leaders and fallen pastors don't disprove Christianity. In fact, they prove that Jesus was right when He warned us that there would be sham leaders and fallen pastors, hypocrites and wolves. Jesus warned us this. Paul warned us this. Peter warned us this. But seeing godly men like Reed Miller and Don Patterson and Jim Baird, fight the good fight, finish the race - what does that do? It strengthens your arms. It encourages you. You face in your culture an opposition to the truth. Reed Miller did. He didn't back down. You face in your culture a resistance to the Gospel. Don Patterson said, "Where do we take it?" You see, being able to look at how men live out what they believe, especially when they invest it in your heart, encourages you to go on to the end.

III. Copy the Faith

And that leads me to the last thing. What does he say at the end of verse 7? "Imitate their faith." That's an interesting way of putting it. Continue to remember your faithful shepherds; consider the result of your spiritual leaders' lives; copy the faith of your spiritual leaders. Imitate their faith. Now you might have expected him to say, "Imitate their life" because he's just been talking about their life. Consider their life. So why does he switch to faith? Because he understands that the way you live flows out of what you believe. The way of life flows from faith. What you believe informs how you live. The truth informs your practice. Your doctrine informs your duty. Your theology informs your ethics. And so their way of life, the way they lived, the outcome of their way of life, the result of their conduct flowed from their faith. And so he says, "Imitate their faith because if you imitate their faith you will imitate their life." So he's not just saying parrot their actions; he's saying follow their faith and then you will live like they lived. You're not just sort of copying what they did.

Follow in the footsteps of faith, not just mannerisms

Have you ever noticed that? Students, students will actually copy the mannerisms of pastors and teachers that they admire. There's a joke all over the reformed evangelical world - you can tell a guy that's studied under John Gerstner in seminary because at points in his preaching he will attempt to talk just like John Gerstner talked. We call it "the Gerstner growl." And you will hear R. C. Sproul do it and you will hear Mark Ross do it. I've lost count of the preachers that I've heard do the "Gerstner growl" and I know exactly where they got it from! But notice he's not saying, "Copy their mannerisms." He's saying, "Copy their faith. Believe what they believe so that you live like they live and so that you cross the finish line like they crossed the finish line." That's what he's saying. Follow in their footsteps of faith. Believe what they believed in order to live the life they lived.

A Faithful Testimony

I love what John Calvin says about this verse. He says, "They," speaking of these faithful leaders, these ones who led, "They rendered a faithful testimony to sound doctrine though their whole live as well as in death." That would be a pretty good epitaph on a gravestone, wouldn't it? You know, for somebody to pull up to your grave and see the words, "She rendered a faithful testimony to sound doctrine through her whole life as well as in her death." That would be a pretty good epitaph. Is that the epitaph you're shooting for? If you will look back to your faithful leaders who first taught you the truth, who spoke to you the Word of God, who practiced what they preached, and who crossed the finish line, there is encouragement for you because the things that you're going through they got through, and that is a very hopeful thought.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the encouragement that You give us through godly spiritual leaders who speak to us the Word of God. May You continue the legacy of their lives in our faith for generations to come. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's continue to worship God, using for the second time in this service, a text written by Robert Murray M'Cheyne. The choir sang that beautiful hymn, words from Robert Murray M'Cheyne. Now we'll sing number 378, "Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face."

Through the finished work of the One in whose wounds your names are written, receive God's blessing. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Let Us Go to Jesus - Hebrews 13:8-14

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13 and look at verse 8. Our reading is going to be from verses 8 to 14 but go ahead and allow your eyes to scan just a little bit back up the page all the way to verse 1 and notice something. Before we do the reading, I want you to note two interesting things. The first thing I want you to note is this whole chapter is filled with exhortations about living the Christian life. We've emphasized that already. So in verse 1, "Let brotherly love continue." Verse 2, "Show hospitality to strangers." Verse 3, "Remember those who are in prison." Verse 4, "Let marriage be held in honor." Verse 5, "Keep your life free from the love of money." Verse 7, "Remember your leaders." So the chapter is moving through a series of exhortations about how to live the Christian life and then suddenly you get to verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Ask yourself the question, "What's the relationship between this series of exhortations and then suddenly this declaration, it's almost an exclamation, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever? What's the relationship between those things?" because there is one. Now here's a second and related question - "Why would you have, in verse 5, the exhortation, 'Keep your life free from the love of money,' the declaration or exclamation, 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever' and then right back to another exhortation again, 'Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings'? Why those two exhortations and then that declaration, that exclamation stuck in the middle? Does it have anything to do with them?" Hint: Answer - Yes. But be thinking, "What would the connection be?"

Now let me help you with the answer to that by outlining the passage that we're going to look at. The real message of this whole section from verse 8 to 14 is, "Go to Jesus." But to understand what that means, I mean just saying, "Go to Jesus," it kind of doesn't make sense unless you have some context and understanding of the content of that, that's where you're going to get; that's actually the exhortation that you're going to get back to in verse 13 and 14 - "Go to Jesus." What does that mean? You have to understand the flow of the argument of the passage to appreciate it and there are five things that I want you to look for in the reading.

The first thing is the declaration, that exclamation that I've already told you about - "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" - verse 8. The second thing is an application of that declaration and you'll see it in verse 9. It's an application of the truth that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" to the living of the Christian life. We've said this whole chapter is about how to live the Christian life. Now, the author of Hebrews is going to tell you how who Jesus is and what He has done relates to how you live the Christian life. Third, look at verses 10 and 11. Then he is going to begin to explain to you the declaration and the application by explaining to you how atonement worked in the Old Testament because he's going to tell you in just a minute that Jesus fulfilled what that atonement work in the Old Testament pointed to. So in verses 10 and 11 he's going to explain how atonement works and how that factors in to the Christian life. Fourth, look at verse 12. Now you're going to get a proclamation and the proclamation will be about the effective work of atonement that Jesus has done. Notice in this passage - you can catch it already just from the way I'm outlining it - this passage zeros our attention in on the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus has atoned for us by His blood. The person of Christ; the work of Christ. And so what you see in verse 12 is a proclamation of the effective work of Jesus Christ for our salvation. And then finally, when you get to verses 13 and 14, you get to the exhortation that the author of Hebrews has been leading up to. It's an exhortation for us to go to Jesus and to seek the city that is to come. So look for those five things as we read God's Word and let's pray before we do so.

Father, this is Your Word. Open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it because we need Your Word as much or more than we need food. We do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from Your mouth. So help us to hear Your Word today as if our lives depended upon it because they do. And we pray this prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it:

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The author of Hebrews in this passage is virtually telling us that Jesus Christ is the secret to the Christian life. He is certainly telling us that Jesus Christ is the key to the living of the Christian life. All of these exhortations that he is giving in this chapter, as practical as they are, as Biblical as they are, as helpful as they are, will avail nothing in the Christian life unless our faith and hope are not ultimately placed in Jesus. Unless we are looking to Him, none of these exhortations can happen; we can't even do them. And none of them will matter because Jesus Christ is the key to living the Christian life. Now we won't understand that, we won't understand that unless we follow his argument in this passage. And I want to do that in these five steps that I've already outlined.

JESUS IS ETERNALLY RELIABLE BECAUSE HE IS CONTINUALLY UNCHANGEABLE

The first thing that I want you to see is the declaration of verse 8. It's an exclamation about who Jesus is. The author of Hebrews says in verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." And what he is saying is this - Jesus Christ is eternally reliable because He is continually unchangeable. You can rely on Jesus Christ in the Christian life because He will never go changing on you. You know, your friends will change and sometimes they'll let you down. Your dearest loved ones will change, or maybe they won't, and their of those things can disappoint you. You know the old joke - He marries her, hoping that she won't change; she marries him, hoping she can change him. But he doesn't and she does! That can be one of the great tensions and disappointments of marriage and it can happen in friendships too. The author of Hebrews says, "Here is point one of the Christian life: Jesus will never ever change from being the faithful, dependable Savior that He has always been, that He is today, and that He always will be. You will always be able to count on Jesus. Everything else will change; He won't change. Everything else in your life is changeable, sometimes not for the better, but He will never change for the worse. You will always be able to depend upon Him."

And my friends, that is so huge for the Christian life because it makes it very clear that Jesus Himself is the key to our living the Christian life. And I just want to pause and say for a moment, that means that if there is in our life a problem today that seems bigger than Jesus, if there is a desire in your heart that is greater than Jesus, then you're in a dangerous place because the whole point of the book of Hebrews - what is it? It's in our title - Jesus is better. And so there is no problem that dwarfs Jesus in the Christian life. And if we begin to think that we're facing a problem that's just too big for Jesus to deal with then our Jesus is too small. And if there has come to be a love or a desire in our heart for either something that we have or something that we don't have that is bigger than our desire and love for Jesus, we're in trouble, because there is nothing better than Jesus.

And I think, I think almost all of the mature Christians in this room would say with me today that though we know Jesus' love for us does not wax and wane, we can attest that our love for Jesus has waxed and waned in the Christian life. We can remember times when there was nothing more precious to us in this world than Jesus. It may have been when we were deeply struggling with the guilt of sin, a guilt or a sin that we knew that we could not handle ourselves; we couldn't fix it ourselves, or a bondage to sin that we couldn't break ourselves free from. And the Lord, in a marvelous deliverance, gave us peace from that sin and liberty from that sin and we knew that we couldn't do that for ourselves and we almost wanted to dance we loved Jesus so much because He delivered us from the guilt and bondage of that sin. And then we grew cold and distracted and we thought about other things. And then through the Word and through the ministry of dear friends we were brought back into a fuller love for Jesus. It just goes up and down and up and down and up and down across the Christian life.

Well it's always dangerous when our love for Jesus is cold, it's always dangerous, because when we're in that circumstance our problems seem bigger than they are and our desires seem more satisfying than they can be because Jesus is the only one who satisfies an there is no problem that Jesus is not bigger than. And so I want to just say, if you are today feeling further away from Jesus than you want to be, go to Jesus and you keep going to Jesus until you know that He is your hope, that He's bigger than any problem that you're facing, and that He's better than any desire that you have in life. No matter how good or holy that desire is, He's still better. The author of Hebrews is telling us that Jesus is the key to living the Christian life. None of these exhortations work without faith in Jesus. In fact, that's the very next thing that he's going to tell you.

JESUS CHRIST ALONE IS ALL WE NEED TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

And here's the second thing. Look at verse 10 and 11. Not yet - look at verse 9. Look at verse 9. "Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace." Now he's going to take that truth, that Jesus is the key to the Christian life, that Jesus is eternally reliable because He is continually unchangeable, and he is going to apply that to our living of the Christian life in verse 9 and he's going to say that Jesus Christ and the grace that He and He alone supplies are exactly what we need to live the Christian life. "Don't be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace." In other words, he's saying what you need is what Jesus supplies, not what false teachers supply, not what the ceremonial food laws of the Old Testament supplied. You need what only Jesus can supply. And what can He supply? Grace. You needed grace not only to be saved; you needed grace to be sanctified. You need grace to persevere. How did John Newton put it? "His grace has led me safe thus far and grace will lead me home. It was grace that first taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved and it's going to be grace that leads me home."

And so the author of Hebrews knows that what we need for living the Christian life we can't get from false teaching. And notice it's in the plural. Even in the early church, in the shadow of the apostles, there were multiple false teachings about there and none of them were going to help you. Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verses 3 to 5 that false teaching leads only to vain speculations. False teaching cannot lead you to maturity in the Christian life; only truth can. Only the truth of Jesus, only Jesus' grace can mature you in the Christian life. And so he says, "Here's what you need to know. Jesus supplies the grace that you need to live the Christian life."

Now his comments about foods at the end of verse 9, "not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them," brings up the picture of the old ceremonial ritual system where there were foods that you could eat and that you couldn't eat. And your eating or not eating of those foods was part of your sanctification in the Old Testament. Part of the way that the Lord kept His people holy is He fixed it where they couldn't eat with people who didn't believe in Him. So when you were in the ancient Near East and you met up with Baal worshipers and they pulled out a massive plate of pork barbeque, you couldn't eat with them because the food laws said you don't eat pork. And do you know what God did? He kept His people from being able to eat with idolaters by prescribing them a different diet. That was one of the ways that He separated them from the nations.

JESUS MAKES ATONEMENT FOR HIS PEOPLE

That thought gets the author of Hebrews, and here's the third step of the argument - look at verses 10 and 11 now - gets him thinking about the Old Testament ritual system. And look at what he says. "We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat." Now you know what he's talking about there. In the Old Testament, one of the ways that the pastor of First Presbyterian Church Jerusalem got paid is when you brought an animal sacrifice a lot of the time he got to take part of the meat of that animal sacrifice. The blood was used in the temple ritual, the rest of the body was destroyed, but you gotta keep some of the best meat from those goats and rams and lambs and cattle and you got to use it to feed your family. And so he's thinking about how, in the Old Testament, the priests, who served in the tent, in the tabernacle or in the temple, got to eat some of the food that was offered in the ritual process. Now the cool thing about this is, he's thinking about you as priests. Listen to what he says. "We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat." In other words, he's saying, "Brothers and sisters, you are a kingdom of priests, and just like they got to eat from the Old Testament sacrificial altar in the tabernacle and temple, you, kingdom of priests, have an altar from which you derive food that nourishes you." And he's about to tell you about that in verse 11.

Look at what he says. "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice of sin, are burned outside the camp." Now if you look in the book of Leviticus, many of the animals that are sacrificed, the priests are allowed to take meat from. But if you will turn to Leviticus 16 and look at verses 22 and following - go ahead and do that in your Bibles; turn to Leviticus 16 verses 22 and following - the atonement offering was not allowed to be consumed by the priests. The atonement sacrifices had to be completely consumed outside the camp by fire. If you look at Leviticus 16 verses 22 and following what does it talk about? It talks about the scapegoat and it talks about the offering of atonement. And what happens? The priest puts his hands on the head of the scapegoat symbolically placing all the sins of Israel on the scapegoat and the scapegoat is taken outside the camp and sent into the wilderness. And what's the picture? The picture is, the sins of God's people being placed on that scapegoat and sent far away into the wilderness so that He bears their sins far away into the wilderness outside of the camp. And then, for the atonement offering, the atonement offering, the blood of that animal, is sprinkled on the people and on the altar and then the animal, in its entirety, is taken outside the camp and burned to ashes.

Now what's the picture? The picture is God dealing with His people's sins by riddance and by propitiation, by removal, by exile, and by the penalty of His wrath. That is, the scapegoat shows that God's people's sins meant that they deserved to be removed from His presence, just like God said to Adam and Eve in the Garden after their sin, "Go out from this Garden. Go out from this Garden. Go out from My presence. You've rebelled against me." So the scapegoat is sent out into the wilderness. And the burning of the atonement animal's carcass symbolizes - and by the way, did you notice that even the priest that takes the carcass of that animal is not allowed back into the camp until he has been completely washed of the blood of that animal having come into contact with the sacrifice of sin? It's a picture that God will deal with sin by meting out the punishment that it deserves. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "My friends, Jesus fulfills what is set forth in that atonement ritual in Leviticus 16 in His own death."

JESUS EXPERIENCED THE ULTIMATE SEPARATION FOR HIS PEOPLE

Here's step four. Look at Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. "So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood." The author of Hebrews is saying Jesus is the scapegoat - He suffers outside the camp. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice - He sheds His own blood for the people. And He is your altar. He's the one who supplies you what you need for your sustenance. By His person and His atoning work, He supplies to you the grace that you need to be nourished. Just as the scapegoat was sent into the wilderness, Jesus is crucified not on the temple mound. He's killed not in the temple but outside the gates - where? Where the criminals were punished! That's where He's crucified!

You know in the Old Testament if you look at the phrase, "outside the camp," it will occur somewhere between a dozen and two dozen times, a lot of times in Leviticus and Numbers. Interestingly, when it does, typically it's for one of three things. One, someone who is unclean or defiled is sent outside the camp. Two, someone who has sinned against the Lord is sent outside the camp, often to be judged, sometimes to be stoned to death outside the camp. Third, the carcasses of these atonement offerings are to be taken outside the camp. You see the picture? The picture is a picture of separation from God and separation from His people. You remember what Jesus cried from the cross, quoting Psalm 22 - "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He experiences the loneliness and the abandonment and the dereliction of the sin bearer outside the camp. That's why the author of Hebrews here emphasizes that He suffered outside the gate. And He bears in His own body on the tree the due penalty of our sins. We could not survive the bearing of the full weight of the wrath of God. We'd be like, we'd be like those carcasses burned to ashes outside the camp. But Jesus did and He was raised again, and in doing that, He bore the penalty that was due to us. He atoned for us that way. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "My friends, that's the key to the living of the Christian life - you understanding who Jesus is and what He has done for you."

GO TO JESUS

And here's the very next thing he says. You're finally to the exhortation. Here it is. Look at verses 13 and 14. Here's the fifth step of the argument. "Therefore let us go to him, outside the camp, and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city but we seek the city that is to come." What's the author of Hebrews saying? He's saying, "Here's the great challenge you have. In the Christian life, the great challenge is in thinking there's something better than Jesus." You know what we call that? We call that worldliness. When you think that there's something better than Jesus it's called worldliness. When you think that you have a problem bigger than Jesus there's a name for that- it's called worldliness. Because this world is held together by Jesus' fingers. There's no problem in this world bigger than Jesus; He holds this world together "by the word of His power," Paul says, in Colossians. And there's nothing better in this world than Jesus but we struggle with worldliness because for most of us the world's been a pretty nice place and our hearts are pulled to it. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Here's going to be the key to your living the Christian life - Go to Jesus because He is better than anything this world has to offer. Cling to Jesus, go to Him, hang on to Him, seek the city which is to come not this world which is passing away."

The author of Hebrews knows that if you go to Jesus there will be people who think that you are a fool; you will bear reproach. You are a fanatic. You're a religious zealot. You're a nut; way too into this religion thing. And the author of Hebrews simply says this - "Do you see where He went for you? He went outside the camp and He bore your reproach." Now when the world says, "Okay, it's us or Him. Who's it going to be?" the author of Hebrews says, "Go to Jesus." When the world says, "Okay, who's it going to be? Us or Him?" God to Jesus. He bore your reproach. Be willing, in gratitude for His grace to you to bear a little of His reproach. Go to Jesus. You see, the author of Hebrews is actually telling you how to fight the battle against worldliness. When you think that your problems are bigger than Jesus or when you think that there's something better out there than Jesus, the author of Hebrews is saying, "What you need is a long meditation on Christology," which is what David Strain has been doing for weeks with us on Sunday nights. That's what the whole Glory In His Face series has been about. It's just - "Let's look at Jesus and think about Him for a while." And that's exactly what the author of Hebrews does here. He says, "Think about who Jesus is and think about what He did and use that to fight when you find your heart tempted to think that there's a bigger problem than Jesus or that there's something better out there than Jesus."

Oh my friends, if your love for Jesus has grown cold, that's a dangerous place. By His grace and through faith, wouldn't you today go to Jesus and remember who He is again and remember what He's done for you and use it to fight the battles of the heart that have to be fought if we're going to live this Christian life? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Jesus. There's nothing like Jesus. But we forget that. Some of us have almost forgotten that and we need to go to Jesus again. So Jesus, bring us there again. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Well let's sing about Jesus using number 677.

Receive God's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Live Life as a Sacrifice of Praise - Hebrews 13:15-16

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be looking at verses 15 and 16 today. As we have worked our way through the book of Hebrews together, we have seen the theme repeated that we should continue to trust in Jesus. William Hendriksen says that the exhortation and argument of the whole book can be summarized this way: "Jesus is worthy of your faith. Have faith in Him and do not fall away." Now the way we've been putting it is this way: "Jesus is better." Don't put your ultimate trust in anything or anyone else but Him. And as we get to chapter 13, we meet a series of exhortations, and though they may look random to you, they in fact all are exhortations about how to live the Christian life. So allow your eyes to look at verses 1 to 14 and remember what we've been in this passage so far. We've had an exhortation for us to love our Christian brothers and sisters, we've seen an exhortation for us to honor marriage, there's been an exhortation not to fall in love with money but to be content with what God has provided us, there's an exhortation for us to remember and imitate those who first taught us the truth of God's Word, and there's an exhortation for us to follow Christ no matter what else may be taught and no matter what it costs us.

And that brings us to verses 15 and 16. And in this little section of Hebrews 13, in these two verses, we meet yet another exhortation. And so that you can follow the content of this exhortation better, I want you to be on the lookout for five things as we read it together. It's just one exhortation, but you'll understand the one exhortation better if you see these five things. First, look at verse 15. Notice that it says, "through Him." This exhortation is to be done through Him. Second, verse 15 again, it says that it's to be done "continually." Third, this exhortation calls on us to give expressed thanksgiving - "the fruit of lips that acknowledge or give thanks to His name." Fourth, this exhortation calls on us to "do good." And fifth, this exhortation calls on us to share generously. So look for those five things as we read Hebrews 13 verses 15 and 16 together. And before we do, let's pray and ask for God's help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word, and as we come now to the last page of the book of Hebrews we pray that You would open our eyes once again to behold wonderful things in Your law. Teach us by Your Spirit of the aspiration that is contained in this exhortation. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in Hebrews 13 beginning in verse 15:

"Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Our Christian aspiration, individually and collectively, is to live life as a sacrifice of praise to God. That's what this exhortation is all about. It's exhorting us to live life as a sacrifice of praise to God and that ought to be an aspiration. It ought to be something that we want to do, that we long to do, that we desire to do. That is, because of what Jesus has done for us, and through His grace, we want to, we long to, live lives that are sacrifices of praise to God both in word and in deed. Now what does that mean and how do we do that? Well, we understand what that means and we are enabled to do that as we see the five parts of this one exhortation. It's a one point sermon, but to understand the one point sermon let's understand the five parts of this exhortation. First, notice: through Him, continually, expressing thanksgiving, doing good, and sharing generously. Let's look at all five of those things in this exhortation.

I. Living Life as a Sacrifice of Praise: through Him

The first thing I want you to see in verse 15 is we do this "through him." In other words, Hebrews is telling us we live lives as sacrifices of praise to God only through Christ, who is the real sacrifice. This is a very interesting and perhaps surprising and unexpected verse because the author of Hebrews has spent the entire book of Hebrews, this entire sermon, this letter, arguing what? That Old Testament sacrifices could not forgive sins and two, the only real sacrifice is the sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ, and three, therefore we do not offer animal sacrifices anymore because those sacrifices didn't forgive sins in the first place; they pointed to the one, true sacrifice of Jesus Christ that has forgiven sin once for all for all who trust in Jesus Christ and therefore there is no more sacrifice for us to give. Remember what he says? "The blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sins." He's talking about the Old Testament sacrificial system. And he says those sacrifices didn't forgive sin.

Jesus Christ: the Sacrifice for our Sins

Now if you look up the word, "sacrifice," in your English Bibles, you will find it about a hundred and sixty-six times, give or take a few depending on what your translation is. Guess where most of those occurrences are - the Old Testament. The word sacrifice appears a bunch of times in the New Testament but most of those occurrences are in the Old Testament. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "You know those Old Testament sacrifices that you had to offer? None of those forgave sins!" And then when the sacrifice is mentioned in the New Testament, the great sacrifice that is pointed to is not those Old Testament ceremonial sacrifices but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. And what does the author of Hebrews says about that sacrifice? That Jesus, once and for all, brought about the forgiveness and remission of sin through His death on the cross. And those Old Testament sacrifices just pointed forward to that. Therefore, he argues - and he's been arguing this since Hebrews chapter 1 - we don't look to the animal sacrifices as our source of forgiveness and hope; we look to Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is better! He's better than Moses, He's better than Joshua, He's better than those old sacrifices.

Our Lives: A Sacrifice of Gratitude and Response

So doesn't it surprise you a little bit for him to get to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15, I mean he's only got a few more verses left in the book, and then he tells you what? Live life as a sacrifice of praise! It takes you off guard, doesn't it? The Old Testament sacrifices didn't work; they didn't forgive sins. Jesus' sacrifice did forgive sins, therefore you don't have to offer sacrifices, so live life as a sacrifice of praise. It catches you by surprise! That's why this little phrase, "through Him," is so important. We live life as a sacrifice of praise only through Christ who is our real sacrifice. The author of Hebrews isn't saying, "Do some things in the way that you live that can add to what Jesus has done so that you'll be forgiven of sins." That's not what he's saying. In fact, he specifically calls this a "sacrifice of praise." It isn't a sacrifice of atonement that he's asking you to live. Jesus has already done the atonement. He's asking you to live as a sacrifice of praise to God - why? Because of what Jesus has done! Jesus has died in your place. Jesus has imputed His righteousness to you. You have received His righteousness by faith so that you are declared right with God, not because you deserve it but because Jesus has paid your penalty and lived in full righteousness on your behalf and that righteousness is credited to your account. Therefore, he says, because of what Jesus has done, I want you to give a different kind of sacrifice - not an Old Testament animal sacrifice, not a sacrifice of atonement, because all of the atonement that you will ever need has already been given; I want you to live out a sacrifice of praise. So the first thing I want you to see is this - we live as a sacrifice of praise to God only through Christ who is the real sacrifice.

II. Living Life as a Sacrifice of Praise: Continually

The second thing I want you to see is, the author of Hebrews is calling us to do something that impacts absolutely everything in life. He's not saying, "I want you to go to church on Sunday and sing a song. I want you to go to church on Sunday and give a word of thanks to God." He's saying, "I want you, in all of life, to live continually as a sacrifice of praise." Look at what he says in verse 15 - "Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God." In other words, we live as sacrifices of praise to God not in some occasional activity but in a continual rhythm of all of life. He is calling us to a whole life act of worship where we view ourselves and everything we do as a sacrifice of praise to God. It's really not unlike the catechism saying to you, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." And you don't just do that on Sunday morning or Sunday evening or Wednesday night; you do that 24/7. You live to glorify God. And he's saying, "I want you to be a sacrifice of praise to God continually."

III. Living Life as a Sacrifice of Praise: Expressing Thanksgiving

Third, look at what else he says in verse 15. You may be asking, "Well what does it mean to be a sacrifice of praise, Ligon?" You've said that over and over but I don't know what it means. Well the author of Hebrews doesn't leave you hanging on that question. He tells you exactly what he means. Look at what he says. "Through him let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God" - okay, you're scratching your head, "What's that?" "That is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." So he starts to tell you what he means by "sacrifice of praise" by saying this - "the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name." What does he mean? He means that you live as a sacrifice of praise to God with lips that continually acknowledge God in praise and in thanksgiving. One way you live life as a sacrifice of praise is you live in constant expressed thankfulness.

A People who constantly have Thanks on their lips

Are you a complainer? Are you a grumbler? Are you a critic? You know, is one of the ways that you cope with the ups and downs of life, the hard times and the burdensomely repetitious hard things of life, do you deal with that by complaining and grumbling and criticizing and blame-shifting and all sorts of other things? Well the author of Hebrews says, "This is what I want us to look like, brothers and sisters. I want us to look like people who constantly have thanksgiving in our hearts and on our lips." When we wake up in the morning we want to say, "Thank you, Jesus." It ought to be instinctive that thanks is the first thing out of our mouths and it's the last thing out of our mouths at night, that we live constantly aware of the mercies of God to us in Christ Jesus so that we are thanking and thankful all the time. That's how you live as a sacrifice of praise. You live with thanks to God in your hearts and so on your lips all the time.

IV. Living Life as a Sacrifice of Praise: Doing Good

Fourth, he goes on to say, look at verse 16 now, "and do not neglect to do good." Now isn't this beautiful? You live as a sacrifice of praise - how? You've got thanksgiving to God on your lips and you're doing good to others. Whoa! What is this? This is Jesus' first and second commands, the two great commands expressed in living the Christian life. When the scribe comes to Jesus and asks Him the question, "Jesus, what is the greatest commandment?" what does Jesus say? "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself." Love God. Love others. Now look at what the author of Hebrews has just said - "Live life as a sacrifice of praise." How do I do that, author of Hebrews? You let God's praise be continually on your lips, you're loving and praising and blessing and worshiping God, and you are doing good to others. You are obeying the first and second commands! Love God. Love your neighbor; love others. That's how you live life as a sacrifice of praise. We live lives as sacrifices of praise to God when we do good to others. "Do not neglect to do good." When you are loving others, you are living life as a sacrifice of praise to God.

V. Living Life as a Sacrifice of Praise: Sharing Generously

And then he says, again at verse 15, fifth - "Do not neglect to share what you have." Do not neglect. Doing good and sharing. We live life as sacrifices of praise to God when we share generously. This comes very fortuitously on the heels of Commitment Sunday and our stewardship sermon! And by the way, here, the word "share" especially has to do with alms giving or sharing with those who are in need. This is what we call benevolent giving - giving to those who are in particular need. And the author of Hebrews is telling you here this is how you live as a sacrifice of praise. You do three things - thanksgiving and acknowledgement from God is in your heart and on your lips, you're doing good to others deliberately because you want to bring praise to God, you want to live as a sacrifice of praise, and you're generous in sharing with those in need because you want to live as a sacrifice of praise to God.

A Parallel in the Apostle Paul

This theology is not unique to the author of Hebrews. You know what I hear when I hear Hebrews 13 verses 15 and 16? I hear Romans 12 verse 1 in the back of my mind - "Therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, present yourselves, your bodies as living sacrifices, which is your spiritual worship." You know people argue about who wrote the book of Hebrews. I don't know, but I do know this - whoever wrote the book of Hebrews sure did know Paul's theology well and he is echoing in Hebrews 13 verse 15 and 16 exactly what the apostle Paul is saying in Romans chapter 12 verse 1. Paul calls us to live our lives, give ourselves as sacrifices, not to atone for ourselves - Jesus has already done that and Paul spent eleven chapters explaining that! And the author of Hebrews is saying not to go out and do something to atone for yourself because he's just spent twelve chapters explaining that Jesus is the one who offered that atonement. He's saying in light of what God has done for you in Christ, here's the sacrifice that God wants - thankfulness to Him, doing good to others, being generous with what you have.

God's goodness: telling us how to please Him

Isn't it glorious, my friends? God does not refuse to tell you what pleases Him in your life. You know there are some people who refuse to be pleased; there really are. There are some people who you can't please for nothing. There are people who will not tell you what they want you to do to please them and they will stand back and wait for you to fail. They will stand back and wait for you to not do what they want you to do and then when you do it, they get you! That is not how your God is. Your God says, "You want to know what causes Me to smile upon your life? You know what gives me pleasure when I look down upon you? It's when there is a sacrifice of praise in your heart and on your lips to Me because of the mercies that I have shown to you in Christ Jesus and when you do good to one another and when you're generous." In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying God does not leave you in suspense wondering what a life that pleases Him looks like. The kind of life that is pleasing to the Lord is a life which is a sacrifice of praise to God, doing good to others, and being generous. What does he say? Look at the end of verse 16 - "such sacrifices are pleasing to God." In other words, the Lord is saying, "Child, when I look down on you and I see the thankfulness in your heart and the thankfulness expressed on your lips and you doing good to one another and you being generous, I just want you to know right now you have My smile upon you."

You remember how Eric Liddell says, "The Lord made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure"? Well here is God saying, "Child, you live this kind of life and you can know My pleasure just like Eric Liddell knew My pleasure when he ran. You don't have to guess what is pleasing to Me. This is the life that is pleasing to Me." You see how all of these exhortations, however random they may look, actually tell us how to live the Christian life? May God make us a congregation like this. Is that what they say about us? "Those people always have thanks to the Lord in their hearts and on their lips. They're always doing good to others. They're very generous." Is that what they say about us? Well it doesn't really matter what they say about us; what we want is our heavenly Father to take pleasure in our doing those things. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, make us a thankful people, constantly, continually doing good to one another and sharing generously what You have so graciously and generously given us with those in need. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's take up blessing on our lips to our gracious heavenly Father. Take your hymnals out, turn with me to number 6, and we'll sing the first, second, and last stanzas of this great hymn.

The author of Hebrews is telling us that if you're living life as a sacrifice of praise you are already receiving from God the word that He is going to give you at the end, that, "Well done, My good and faithful servant." He's already pleased.

And so for all who are trusting in Jesus Christ, receive His good word: Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Obey Your Leaders - Hebrews 13:17

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be looking at verse 17 as we return to our study of this book and its last chapter. If you were going to give a topic heading for Hebrews 13:17-19 it would be, "The Responsibility of the Congregation to Its Spiritual Leaders." And I think you could outline it in two parts: obey and pray. And we'll look at the obey verse today, verse 17, and then we'll look at the pray verses, 18 and 19, Lord willing. I'm really glad that I'm getting to preach this text to you now because it will be apparent that there's no agenda in it for me. My purpose in preaching this sermon is not to get you to obey me. As the text unfolds, in fact, the reference is not to one person but to the gathered spiritual leaders of the local congregation. But in a month or so, God willing, I will be serving in another setting so what I get to say to you today is in preparation for a new ministry and in the interest of the shepherds who come behind me. So I'm really glad that I get to preach this text at this time so that it's apparent that I'm not trying to serve myself in preaching a message on obeying your leaders.

Now the idea of an adult obeying another adult is a little bit strange in our culture. Outside of the military, obedience language is not common in our culture in reference to adult's relationships to other adults. We still use it in the context of parenting, although in some Western cultures even that is eroding. There is a country which has actually passed a law, a Western country, forbidding parents to use corporal punishment on their children. And in that culture, there are those who question whether the parents have the right to expect obedience from their children. And if it's happening there, you can imagine that sooner or later it will get to us and there are certainly people in our own culture who question whether parents ought to have authority over their own children. And so obedience language between adults is a little bit strange in our culture. People will often poke fun at First Presbyterian Church. Maybe you've had friends and neighbors in the community poke fun at you. "Oh, you're the church that still uses the submission vow in the wedding services." And you know, there's this background suspicion that First Presbyterian Church is home central for misogynists and male chauvinists who are sort of trying to keep women down.

But it's interesting that obedience and submission are not something that is for some particular sub-group within the Christian community; the New Testament has language for all us. I don't know whether you remember, but seventeen years ago when I took my vows before this congregation I vowed obedience. You cannot be a PCA minister without vowing to be in submission to your brethren. So every minister and every elder that you have has taken a vow of obedience. Every Christian is called to obedience. It's just part of the Christian life. And you know what? When we're doing it we're actually following Jesus. You remember, Jesus, on one occasion, was describing His calling to His disciples and He said, "You understand, I do not do this of my own accord. I come to do the will of Him who sent Me." That's how Jesus typically describes His life and ministry. What He was saying was, "I'm not here to do what I want to do; I'm here to do what the Father wants Me to do." And so Jesus could describe His life and ministry in terms of obedience. In fact, on one occasion, and John's the one who records it, He says to His disciples, "It is My meat to do the will of Him who sent me." In other words, Jesus was saying, "I love doing what God told Me to do. I really love being obedient to His will for My life and ministry. It's like spreading a seven-course feast in front of Me to get to do My Father's will." So when we are obedient in the Christian life we are just following Jesus because Jesus was obedient in His Christian life. So though it's unusual in our culture to talk about adults obeying other adults, this passage reminds us how alien our culture's outlook is from the New Testament and from the attitude of Jesus.

So let's pray and we'll read from Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 and look at this great passage together.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word and we pray that You would teach us from it today. Surprise us with Your truth. Challenge us in areas where we are perhaps self-protective and self-centered. Teach us the way of Gospel obedience. Point us to the obedient Savior who saved us by His own obedience and gave us a salvation by free grace. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it:

"Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

The one great point of this passage is that your submission in the Christian life is important for your wellbeing and for the wellbeing of those who lead you. Your submission in the Christian life is important for your wellbeing; God in His kindness has provided to be your shepherds and watchmen in the Christian life. It's a direct way of emulating Jesus because the life that Jesus lived was a life of obedience and submission. He was obedient to God's will. He submitted Himself to His heavenly Father's purposes. And we're called to do that in the Christian life. And I want to look at this verse in great detail with you today and elaborate that one main point. It's one main point but there are seven things that I'd like you to see really quickly. Now don't worry; the sermon won't be fifty-five minutes long! We'll move through these quickly! But this I hope will unfold for you what is being asked for and why in this passage.

OBEDIENCE AND SUBMISSION ARE PART OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

The first thing I want you to see is this. Obedience and submission are part of the Christian life. Obedience isn't for a certain segment of Christians; it's for all Christians. It's a part of the Christian life. Look at the language in verse 17. "Obey your leaders and submit to them." Now that's language that is used on numerous occasions in the Bible and in the New Testament. Believers here are called to obey their spiritual leaders. This passage isn't a parallel to Romans 13 where Paul's calling on us to obey government leaders; this is talking about spiritual leaders. You see that because these are people who are called, "those who watch over your souls." The parallel, if you look back, is verse 7. So if you look from Hebrews 13:17 back to Hebrews 13:7 you'll remember that we were called to imitate our leaders and to remember them and to be thankful to God for them because they taught us the Word of God. And so these are the leaders that are being spoken of here. These are spiritual leaders.

But we're not just called to obey and to submit to those spiritual leaders in the Christian life. In fact if you look back at Ephesians chapter 5 we typically think about the relationship between wife and husband there, but Paul, if you look at Ephesians 5:21 introduces the whole section by talking about the way we mutually serve one another in the Christian life. All of us are called to this kind of mutual servitude in the Christian life. Obedience is a normal part of Christian experience. And so when some Christians are called to obey others, they're not being asked to do something that all Christians are not asked to do. Christian ministers are asked to obey, just like I took vows to be in obedience to my brethren - and of course I'm to be obedient to God - but all Christians, in some of our relationships, bear these kinds of responsibilities. And that's important for us to realize because it's a little bit strange in our culture to talk about obedience, especially between two adults.

CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP IN THE LOCAL CHURCH IS PLURAL

Second, Christian leadership in the local church, and the extended church, but we're thinking especially about the local church here, Christian leadership in the church is plural. Now what do I mean by that? Look again, it's the very first phrase of verse 17. "Obey your leaders and submit to them." Not, "Obey your leader and submit to him," but "Obey your leaders and submit to them." The call here is for an obedience and submission to a plural leadership. This is hugely important because all around us, especially in the evangelical world, we see cults of personality where one particularly gifted leaders, by virtue of that gifting, lords it over a congregation or a movement and has no one to whom he is accountable. Well here, it's a group of people who are leading a local congregation. Not one person but a group. "Obey your leaders."

Listen to this; this is hugely important in the Christian life. This protects us from abuse of power, it makes it clear that leaders themselves are accountable. There's not unchecked power here. Where there is unchecked power in the hands of one person you can expect abuses to occur. And I'm so thankful we live in a congregation and minister in a congregation where there's not only been faithful minister or senior pastors for a hundred and seventy-seven years, but there has been a plurality of godly leadership. We are an elder-led Presbyterian church on purpose. I am accountable to my elders and they to one another. And that is good for the health of the congregation and here we're reminded of that. Christian leadership, in both the local church and the extended church, by God's design is plural.

If you look at the word, Presbyterian, or the Greek word behind it, presbuteros in the singular, presbytery in the plural, most often in the New Testament that word is used in the plural. In other words, more often than not it doesn't talk about "an elder" it talks about "elders" in the plural. And the word from which we get Episcopalian, episcopas or episcopoi, is also found in the New Testament. Why didn't we call ourselves Episcopalians? That's a perfectly good word, episcopes, episcopoi - it means bishop or shepherd or guide. Well one reason it, the word, presbuteros, presbytery, is used more frequently and it's kind of the title, and episcopoi or episcopas is the job description. The elders' job description is to watch over our guide. You even get that language here, don't you? In this very passage, you see the language in verse 17 of keeping watch. That's what bishops or shepherds or guards do - they watch over the flock. But more often than not in the New Testament the reference is to a plural group of elders giving leadership in the local church and in the extended church. In Acts 15, when Christians gather in Jerusalem to solve a problem that's all the way in Antioch, we hear that the apostles and the elders are there. And the principle of being led, not just by one person, but by a plurality of godly leadership, it's just written all over the New Testament and we see that here.

CHRISTIANS HUMBLY RECEIVE AND FOLLOW BIBLICAL TEACHING AND EXHORTATION OF THEIR LEADERS

Third, what in the world does it mean to obey your leaders? Look at verse 17. The first injunction is, "obey your leaders." What does that mean? It means this. Christians humbly receive and follow the Biblical teaching and exhortation of their leaders. This is not some sort of an undiscerning, check your brain at the door, absolute abdication or your personality and personal freedom to ecclesiastical authority. That's not what's going on here. Remember in this book the author of this book, preaching to this congregation, is concerned about false teachers who sort of show up with their new, novel ideas, and they begin to pervade them to the congregation. And what he is saying is, "Now listen, receive the teaching of the apostles from the lips of your leaders. What they're teaching you, you've been hearing it for twenty, thirty years now, and your ears may be itching for something new. Well what I want to tell you is, don't let your ears itch for something new. What you need to hear is the good, old, apostolic teaching from the lips of your leaders. Obey them as they teach you the truth. Don't listen to the false prophets who come rolling through with their new ideas. You listen to the tried and true apostolic teaching from your elders, your leaders, your shepherds. Obey that. Obey that teaching."

You remember Jesus told His disciples to, "Go, make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded." So in other words, Jesus was not just saying to His disciples, "Fill people's heads up with knowledge and make them assent to that." No, He said, "No, no, I don't want them just to know what I taught; I want them to obey what I taught." So when he says, "Obey your leaders," he's saying, "Listen to that good old faithful apostolic preaching and teaching, which the apostles received from Jesus, and make sure that your people obey that. Receive the teaching of your leaders and obey it.

SHOW DUE DEFERENCE TO GODLY LEADERSHIP

Well what does he mean by "submit to them"? "Obey your leaders and submit to them." He means, this is the fourth thing, to show due deference to and follow the godly leadership of these shepherds. Again, this doesn't mean that shepherds and leaders in the Christian church have absolute authority. They don't. If we're out of accord with the Word of God we've got no authority; none whatsoever. And anything that we say that is out of accord with the Word of God ought to be rejected out of hand. But, by God's grace, you have been given a hundred and seventy-five years plus of faithful, godly, Biblical shepherds in this congregation; not just pastors, but elders. And we're to give due deference and follow the godly leadership of those shepherds.

One of the things that's given stability to this church - a friend of mine, when I first came to Jackson I worked at Trinity Presbyterian Church in town which used to be on Northside Drive where Redeemer is. And one of our young officers in that church, he became a deacon during my time there, had come out of an Independent Congregational background. And when I came to the church we were already in a ministerial transition. My boyhood pastor, Gordon Reed, was the interim pastor and he has just taken over from the previous pastor who had resigned and had gone on to another field of service. And after Mr. Reed, Mike Ross came to the church as the new pastor. And my friend, who became a young deacon in the church, said to me, "This was so strange to go through a pastoral transition and for the church not to split." He said, "I've never been in a church that didn't split when the pastor left." Well one of the reasons was, that church was not built around one person but around the plurality of godly leadership and the congregation had learned to defer to the wisdom and the leadership of those godly leadership and they went through a pastoral transition just fine, just like this church has twelve times, because there was a continuity of godly leadership that the congregation trusted. So Christians show due deference to and follow the godly leadership of their shepherds.

GODLY LEADERS ARE CALLED TO A PROTECTIVE WATCHFULNESS

Fifth - why? Now the fifth and sixth points are why you do this. The fifth point, look at the middle part of verse 17 - "for they are keeping watch over your souls." In other words, the reason why you do this, the reason why you humbly receive and follow the Biblical teaching of your leaders and you show due deference to them and follow their godly leadership is because they are called to a protective watchfulness over your souls. Now I love this language. "Keeping watch over your souls" - there are at least two Biblical pictures of keeping watch. And we're just about to enter into Christmas season. You know one of them. "There were in the same country, shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night." That's an Old Testament and a New Testament picture that's applied to leaders in the church. Their job, like shepherds, is to make sure that wolves don't creep in and snatch sheep and take them away. So what are they doing? They're looking out for the wellbeing of the flock. The other picture, though, comes from the Old Testament prophets. And the prophets often called themselves, "watchmen," people who keep watch - why? Because of the image of watchmen who stood up on the city walls at night and during the three watches of the night, while you slept, they watched on the walls to make sure that you were not attacked by a marauding enemy while you slept. What was their purpose of standing on those walls? To protect the city from attack. So there are the two pictures of keeping watch - the watchmen on the walls and the shepherds watching their flocks.

Well what is it that these leaders are called to do? They're called to watch over your souls. Now this is huge because all of us are tempted in this life to care more about being happy now than eternally. And sometimes we seek our happiness and our satisfaction here apart from God, and when we do that, we endanger our everlasting happiness. These leaders have the job of always watching over your souls. They want you to be happy now, but more than that, they want you to be happy forever. You were created with souls that will never die and you will live for eternity in one place or another. And these leaders' job is to watch over you and to sometimes tell you uncomfortable things so that you do not forfeit happiness forever because you wanted to be happy now. They're keeping watch over your souls. And sometimes making sure that you don't miss the forest for the trees and sometimes so that you don't miss eternity for now. They're looking out for the wellbeing your souls. That's why you ought to obey and to submit to them.

LEADERS IN THE CHURCH WILL GIVE AN ACCOUNT TO GOD

OF THEIR LEADERSHIP

And then, sixth, look at the end of that middle section - "for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account." In other words, they are accountable to God. They will one day give an account for how faithful they were in keeping watch over your souls. That is an awesome thought, that one day the pastors and elders of this congregation will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we will give an account for how faithful we were in watching over your souls. I hope you'll pray for us. It's an awesome thing. John Brown of Haddington is one of my favorite Presbyterian scholar-theologians of the 19th century in Scotland. Haddington is a town east of Edinburgh, and it's famous because Haddington was where John Knox was born. But John Brown was from Haddington. And there are so many John Brown's in Scotland you have to say which John Brown it is so they call him John Brown of Haddington. "Oh, that's the Presbyterian minister and theologian who was from Haddington."

When he was a young man he had a young ministerial student who had just graduated from Edinburgh and who had been called to a church and it was a tiny little church and that young man was embarrassed about how small his church was. And so his professor, John Brown, wrote him a letter. And here's what he said. "I know the vanity of your heart and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small in comparison with those of your brethren around you. But assure yourself on the word of an old man, that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ at His judgment seat, you will think that you had enough." You see the picture. He's got thirty-four people to give an account for before the judgment seat of Christ while others have three thousand. And on that day he'll think, "Thirty-four was plenty enough, Lord. Plenty enough to give account for." One day, I'll give an account and your ministers and your elders will give an account because Christian leaders are accountable to God.

GODLY LEADERS FIND JOY IN SEEING GOD'S GRACE

WORK IN THE LIVES OF CHRISTIANS

One last thing we see in this passage. Here's the seventh thing. It's the final phrase - "Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you." Isn't that interesting? He said that you are to aim for your leaders to have joy in their ministry. He wants you to be conscious of them having joy in ministering to you. Now I want to tell you, the Gospel ministry has joys like nothing else in this world. When you have seen someone lost as a goat gloriously transformed and found and changed by the grace of God, there's nothing like it. When you see someone advanced in years devouring the Scriptures and growing in grace like they were a sixteen year old right out of a revival meeting, there's nothing like it. When you see people who had relationships that were broken but because of the Gospel able to forgive one another, there's nothing like it. There are joys in the ministry that I would not trade for anything in this world. And there are sorrows and heartbreaks that I can't even describe to you. And the older you grow, the more of those heartbreaks that you know and they're always there.

The joys are there, but always in the background, even when you're baptizing someone, even when you're teaching someone the Scriptures, even when you're getting to proclaim the Word of God to a congregation that believes the Bible and listens to what you say, and you're saying to yourself, "I can't believe I get to do this!" in the back of your mind there's someone that you poured your life into who's made a shipwreck of the faith and fallen away. And there's someone who just won't repent. And you've told him over and over and over again as nicely as you can, as persuasively as you can, as importunately that you can that his soul hangs in the balance and you've gotten nowhere. Or there's a relative, there's a relative that you love is headed for hell and every time someone comes to faith in Christ under your ministry in the back of your mind you're saying, "Lord, why can't he come to Jesus? Four people have come to faith in Christ under my ministry this year, Lord, and my own flesh and blood haven't come to faith in Christ." And so the author of Hebrews says, "Look, make sure that you respond to the ministry of these leaders in such a way that they have joy in it. That's good for you. It wouldn't be good for you if they didn't have joy in their ministry to you." It's interesting, isn't it, Paul and Peter elsewhere in the New Testament will say to leaders, "Now make sure that you're serving not out of compulsion but willingly and gladly." So Paul and Peter are kind of working on the leaders and saying, "Make sure you do this, not because you're made to but because you want to and you have joy in it." But the author of Hebrews is looking at it from the standpoint of those who are being ministered to and saying, "Make it your standing business that your leaders have joy in leading you."

Now this is why I am so glad I get to preach this message now. You've given me joy for seventeen years. Do that for your next pastor. You were patient with me when I didn't know how to preach my way out of a paper bag. Do that for your next pastor. Be patient with him. Give him joy in his ministry. Don't say, "Well that's not like Ligon did it." Don't say that to him. Now a lot of you will be really glad that it won't be like Ligon did it, okay, but don't say, "That's not how Ligon did it." Give him joy in his ministry because as many joys as he's going to have in this congregation of three thousand plus souls, on any given day there is enough sorrow to weigh anyone's heart down. So you give him joy in his ministry and you listen and receive the Word of God from his lips with delight, submissively taking it in. And in so doing, you'll be following Jesus, who loved to obey His Father and do His will.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Work it into our hearts we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's sing about the church we love using number 353, "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord."

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pray for Preachers - Hebrews 13:18-19

1 Thessalonians 5:25

25 Brothers, pray for us.

2 Corinthians 1:11-12

11 You also must help us by prayer,

so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience,

that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom

but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

Ephesians 6:19-20

18 praying at all times in the Spirit,. . . , making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me,

that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,

20 for which I am an ambassador in chains,

that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Colossians 4:3-4

3 At the same time, pray also for us,

that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ,

on account of which I am in prison--

4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

2 Thessalonians 3:1

1 Finally, brothers, pray for us,

that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,

2 and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.

Romans 15:30-32

30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit,

to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,

31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea,

and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

32 so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

Hebrews 13:18-19

18 Pray for us,

for we are sure that we have a clear conscience,

desiring to act honorably in all things.

19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.

From these passages we can glean at least eight things we can pray for ministers:

1. For Gospel fruit in ministry

2. For dependence on the grace of God in ministry (and not earthly wisdom)

3. For boldness and clarity in proclaiming Christ and the Gospel

4. For faith and faithfulness even in suffering for Christ

5. For Gospel opportunities and successes

6. For deliverance from evildoers and persecutors

7. For ministry to be well-received by God's people

8. For the joy and refreshment of being with God's people

A Scripture-based Congregational Prayer for Pastors

Most gracious and merciful heavenly Father,

In your Scriptures your ministers ask their brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for them (1 Thessalonians 5:25) and so we do so gladly this morning.

Lord, we want to help them by our prayers, so that many will give thanks to you for the blessings that you grant through the faithful ministry of your pastors, blessings won by the many prayers of your praying people. (2 Corinthians 1:11)

We ask that you would give your servants the testimony of a good conscience, that they have served you in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in earthly wisdom but by the grace of God. Lord, enable them to live a life toward you. (2 Corinthians 1:12)

Grant that when they open their mouths that will speak boldly, proclaim the Gospel and declare it clearly. And if they must bear chains for Jesus, enable them to do so in faith and faithfulness. (Ephesians 6:19-20)

Almighty God, open the door for the word, so that they may clearly and powerfully preach Christ. (Colossians 4:3-4) Make the word of the Lord speed ahead and be honored, and deliver your servants from wicked and evil men, the faithless. (2 Thessalonians 3:1).

We strive with our brothers in Christ, our pastors, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that they may be delivered from unbelievers who hate the truth and would harm them, and that their service would be found acceptable to all the saints. And that they would be united in joy with their congregations. (Romans 15:30-32)

Finally, Lord, we pray that ministers would have a clear conscience and act honorably in all things and be ready to give an account, and that you might bring to us our new pastor soon. (Hebrews 13:17-19)

In Jesus' name. Amen.

The Great Shepherd of the Sheep - Hebrews 13:20-25

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be looking at the final verses of the book together as we come to the end of our exposition. Over and over again in our study of this book we have said that it is emphasized that Jesus is better - Jesus is better than Moses, better than the high priests, better than the Old Testament sacrifices. Jesus is better. And this final section of the book has been very much about the living of the Christian life and this passage is today that we are going to be studying on that same topic. There are two parts to the passage. If you'll take a look at the passage in front of you you'll notice in verses 20 and 21 a benediction. And that benediction asks you to believe something. It asks you to believe something about what God is doing in your life in order for you to live the life that He has called you to live. In fact in that passage the author if Hebrews is going to ask you to believe and understand seven things which undergird your ability to live the Christian life. We'll contemplate on that some today.

The second part of the passage you'll see in verses 22 to 25 and they're just words of greeting. But greeting words at the end of Bible books are never throw-away words. Every word of Scripture is given by inspiration and every word is profitable. And there is much profit in these final words of greeting. I'll only be able to concentrate on one particular line of truth from that particular passage and you'll see it in verse 22 where you are asked to bear something. So if I were going to give an outline of the sermon and the passage today it would be in two parts - Believe, verses 21 and 21, and Bear, verse 22 especially out of verses 22 to 25. So before we read God's Word let's ask for His help and blessing in prayer.

Heavenly Father, because this is Your Word we pause now to ask Your help in our understanding Your Word. Open our eyes by the work of Your Holy Spirit to understand wonderful things from Your Word. By that same Spirit, apply that truth to our hearts in very specific ways. Help us. Make our own hears be hearing ears and our hearts be listening hearts to learn what You have to say to us, O God. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it beginning in Hebrews 13 verse 20:

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

I appeal to you, brothers, hear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and al the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Equipped to do His Will

This passage, and especially the benediction, is designed to teach us that God has not left us to live the Christian life on our own. Jesus didn't save you from your sins and then say to you, "Okay, you're on your own. Go do the best you can. Go live the Christian life." God saved you and equipped you and that is good news. The "very simply" part of the benediction in verses 20 and 21 is that first phrase in verse 21 - "May God equip you with everything good that you may do his will." Everything else is built around that phrase. The main blessing which the author of Hebrews is pronouncing on this original congregation and pronouncing on you is that God will equip you with everything that you need in order to live the life that He has called you to live. In other words, the point is, God graciously equips His people to do His will. That means that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, God supplies you with the resources that you need in order to do what He calls you to do. That is an incredibly important and incredibly encouraging thing. One of my favorite prayers from Augustine's Confessions is his prayer when he says to God, "Command what You will and give what You command." Augustine is saying, "Lord, You can tell me to do anything that You want to tell me to do as long as You'll help me do it. Please don't command me to do something and then withhold from me what I need in order to do what You've commanded because I've got a fickle heart, Lord. I want to do it my way. I don't want to do it Your way sometimes. So when You command me to do something, give me the ability to do what You command by the grace work of Your Holy Spirit in my heart and life."

And that is exactly what is entailed in the blessing that is being pronounced on you by the author of Hebrews under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He's saying, "God has not called you to do what He wants you to do in the Christian life in your own strength. He has equipped you to do what He's called you to do. He has equipped you to live the life that He's called you to live." And that is incredibly encouraging. And I want you to see the foundation of that here. Now I said that there were seven things in this passage. You'll see four of them in verse 20; you'll see three of them in verse 21. Let's walk through the basis, the foundation, the build up to that phrase in verse 21. And you will notice four "P"s here. Behind our living of the Christian life is the peace of God, the power of God, the providence of God, and the propitiation provided by God. Let's look at each of those in this passage.

I. The Peace of God

First of all the author of Hebrews says, "Now may the God of peace." Now Paul likes to speak about the God of peace. And this is another reason why I think that the author of Hebrews had to be in his missionary circle because though his literary style is different from Paul's his theology is a carbon copy. And over and over, even in the passage that we're going to study today, you're going to see ideas that you have met over and over as you have read the apostle Paul's letters stated in a slightly different but very similar way right here in this passage. And here's one of them. Paul likes to speak about the God of peace. But I don't want you to miss a blessing here. It's surprising that we can call God the God of peace. The Old Testament tells us that God is the Lord of hosts and the God of armies. Aren't you glad that He hasn't marched out into the fields of battle against us, because if He did, we would lose? And we deserve to have Him march out in the fields of battle against us. You remember what we've quoted several times in the last few weeks from Romans 5? That we were sinners and we were enemies against God. We deserve to have our sins judged; we were at enmity with God. But at the right time, in God's love, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us, for the ungodly, sinners, His enemies, so that we were no longer under His just wrath and we were no longer at enmity with Him but brought into His friendship and fellowship. In other words, Paul is saying in Romans 5 and the author of Hebrews is saying in Hebrews 13:20 that the Lord of hosts, the God of armies has become for us in Jesus Christ the God of peace. That is very good news and it is the foundation of our living of the Christian life.

This is so important for you to get. We do not do what we do in the Christian life in order to get God to be at peace with us. We do not live the way that we live in the Christian life in order to get God to be at peace with us. We do and we live the way that we are called to do and live because God is at peace with us already in Jesus Christ. And so many Christians struggle with getting this. Many people are propelled to the mission field trying to get God to be at peace with them and they don't realize that there's already good news. That if they're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel, God is already at peace with them and that is the foundation of our living the Christian life.

II. The Power of God

Second - "May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus." This speaks of the power of the resurrection. The author of Hebrews reminds you in this benediction that it is the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ which is at work in you in order that you can live the Christian life. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God equips us to live as He wants us to live. And again, this is a very Pauline idea. I can show it to you in multiple passages in Paul but let me just show you one. Turn with me to Romans chapter 8 verse 11. In that passage, the apostle Paul tells us this. "If the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, through His Spirit who dwells in you." He's talking about the power of God, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, being at work in you to give you new life. And that is exactly the thought that the author of Hebrews is drawing to our attention here today - "who brought us again from the dead through our Lord Jesus, so that we might do His will."

Do you know how many times the resurrection is mentioned in the book of Hebrews explicitly? One. Right here. He's waited all the way until the end of the epistle, he's saved it up like a preacher holding back his best bit for his final point, and he's pointed to the resurrection and he's said, "Dear fellow Christian, the power of the resurrection of Jesus is at work in you by the pleasure of God the Father and by the application of the Holy Spirit so that you can live the Christian life. That's how you're equipped for every good work!"

III. The Providence of God

Third, notice what else he says. "He brought up again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great" - and what are you waiting for? Well based on what we've been doing in Hebrews so far, you're waiting - "the great High Priest." How often has that been emphasized in this letter so far? But that's not what he says. "The great shepherd of the sheep." That thought is so important because it emphasizes Jesus' providence over His Church. He is the Good Shepherd. That's what He told His disciples in John 10. "I am the Good Shepherd." And of course He was pointing back to Psalm 23 and God's shepherding providence over His people. You're never in the valley of the shadow of death without your God being there with you. And the author of Hebrews is reminding us that your great Shepherd, by virtue of the resurrection, is alive, ever lives to intercede for you, and is watching over you all the time. Yes, He gives to His people under-shepherds, but it is not because He's not actively involved in the providence and watch-care of His church, they are simply the means by which He exercises His oversight and care for us. He's pointing to the providence of Jesus over His people. He doesn't call you to live the Christian life on your own. What does Jesus say to His disciples? "I will never leave you or forsake you. Lo, I am with you always," He says in the Great Commission. He is with His people as the great Shepherd of the sheep watching over us as we live the Christian life. The God of peace grants us the peace of God for the living of the Christian life. God, who by His power raised Jesus from the dead is working by that same power in us to live the Christian life. Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep is still, in His providence, looking over His Church and watching out for us.

IV. The Propitiation provided by God

And propitiation is mentioned. Look at the final sentence there in verse 20 - "by the blood of the eternal covenant." You remember how Hebrews has been contrasting the Old Testament sacrifices with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? The blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sin but the blood of Jesus Christ has forgiven sin. Let me tell you something absolutely glorious. After you have been in heaven for a billion years, a trillion years, you will not be more forgiven than you are today if you're trusting in Jesus Christ because His blood has availed for the pardon of your sin. It is eternal. Your sins have been forever separated from you as far as the east is from the west. You need to know that for living the Christian life because in the Christian life you're constantly battling against sin and it discourages you. And you need to remember that by the blood of the eternal covenant, propitiation has been offered for your sin and you are pardoned! Peace, power, providence, and propitiation so that you can live the Christian life.

V. Everything Good: God's good work in you makes your good work possible

And then he goes on to tell you three more things. Look at verse 21. All of these things are so that you will be equipped "with everything good so that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight." Notice what the author of Hebrews is saying. He is saying that God is at work with you, in you, to make your work possible. God's good work in you makes your good work possible. And this again is something that Paul says all the time. You remember in Ephesians 2:8-10 where Paul says you're not saved by good works. You're saved "by grace through faith, and that a gift of God, not by works lest anyone should boast. But you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." So Paul tells you in Ephesians 2:8-10 that you were not saved by good works; you were saved to good works. The basis of your acceptance with God is not your good works; the goal of God's salvation work in you is your good works. God intends to save you and make you fruitful and both of those things are good news and both of them are the work of God for and in you.

Now the apostle Paul explains how God does this in Philippians chapter 2. Would you turn with me to Philippians chapter 2 verse 13? In Philippians chapter 2 verse 13 the apostle Paul says this - "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Now that is almost exactly what the author of Hebrews is saying in Hebrews 13:21 in slightly different language. Listen. "May God equip you with every good thing that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight." Now listen to Philippians 2:13 again. "For God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Somebody's been listening to somebody else's sermons! Somebody might even call him up and ask him if he's plagiarized the apostle Paul on that one! But it's the same point. Here's the good news - God does not save you and then say, "Now you're on your own. Go get sanctified." He is at work in you to accomplish His purposes and His will. That is incredibly good news - that God is more committed by my sanctification than I am. When I stop working on my sanctification He doesn't and when I do work on my sanctification it's because He already is. God is at work in me for His good pleasure. God's good work in you makes your good work possible.

VI. Everything good: Through Jesus Christ

Second - "through Jesus Christ." Look at verse 21 - "working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ." Everything, everything in our sanctification is dependent on our union with Jesus Christ because our sanctification is done through Jesus Christ. Jesus not only saves us, our union with Him is what sanctifies us. In Hebrews 10:7 the author of Hebrews quotes the passage that Jesus quoted when He was preaching in His home synagogue in Nazareth. Do you remember when Jesus said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will?" It was one of the great themes of Jesus' life - that He saw His life - His life motto was, "It is My meat to do the will of Him who sent Me." Jesus loved to do His Father's will. "I love to do My Father's will. It's like a feast. It's like meat that has been set before Me. It's like a seven-course dinner to be able to do God's will. I love to do My Father's will." And Jesus doesn't just say to us, "See, that's what I did. I did My Father's will, now you do what I did." He doesn't just give you an example and an exhortation; by His Spirit He unites you to Him so that you are enabled to do what He did and that is, to do His Father's will and to love doing His Father's will. That's done "through Jesus Christ."

VII. Everything Good: for His glory

And it's done for His glory - "to whom be glory forever and ever." So working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, God is at work for our sanctification. Second, it's done through union with Christ, "through Jesus Christ." And it's done for Jesus' glory - "to whom be glory forever and ever." In other words, as God works in us so that we live the life that He calls us to live, He gets all the praise and the glory. We don't get the credit because He's the One at work in us. Another one of my favorite prayers of Augustine is this one. It also comes from the Confessions where he says to the Lord, "Lord, everything good in me is due to you. The rest is my fault." What a great motto for understanding what this passage is saying. Whenever we see progress anywhere in the Christian life it's due to God's work in us. We don't get to say that we're the ones that produce our holiness. God is at work in us to help us live the life that we are called to live.

Seven Things that undergird our ability to live the Christian Life

And the neat thing is, though we are all different in this room and we have different callings in this room, the author of Hebrews is saying these seven things are true of all of us, no matter what we're called to do in this life. We may be called to work with integrity in our vocation when our partners and our bosses are trying to make us work without integrity and it may cost us to work with integrity. And if that's what you're called to, these seven things are the things that undergird your ability to work with integrity in your vocation. We may be called to bear up in a hard relational situation in our life, in our marriage, in our family - or not. We may have a very relatively happy life in marriage and family. But no matter which one you are, these seven things undergird your ability to do what God has called you to do. We may be called to willingly and joyfully obey in an area of besetting, habitual sin. These seven things undergird our ability to fight against that sin. And that is so important because you may have just, for the nineteen-thousandth time, failed again in that area that you hated and have been fighting against. You may feel like God is not at work in you and you may need to go back and believe again something that you have forgotten - that He is at work in you. Or, you may be called to have an impact on your neighborhood, your community, your culture, or to bear fruit in someone's life. Whatever you are called to do in the Christian life, and it may be very, very different for each one of us here today, these seven things undergird our ability to live the Christian life.

VIII. Bear: Preaching of the Word of God for the good of your souls

Now one last thing. Look with me at verse 22. You're called to believe that the Lord will equip you and understand how in this passage, but you're also called to bear something. Remember I said the outline was - believe and bear? Well what do you have to bear? Look at what he says. "I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly." Now I love that sentence. Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, the great commentator on the book of Hebrews, says that "the book of Hebrews reads like a sermon written like a letter to friends." Isn't that a beautiful description? "It reads like a sermon that sounds like a letter to friends." And if you read this out loud as it was meant to be, it would take you just less than an hour to read this letter, this sermon, out loud. And that's what the author of Hebrews intended to happen. He intended to send it to this church and then their pastor would stand up and read the letter out loud to the congregation. So here they've been listening for almost an hour. Some of the things he has said have been challenging. Some of the things that he has said to them have been convicting. Some of the things that he has said to them have been frightening. Some of the things that he has said to them have been baffling. Some of the things that he has said to them have been stupefying, glorious. And here at the end he says, "Bear with this brief letter." They've been read to now for an hour, all these things. "Bear with this that has been written to you briefly."

What do I want to get from that? He says, "Bear with my word to you, though it may be painful, though it may challenge you, though you may have to dig to understand all that I am saying to you, bear with this letter." He's asking them to listen faithfully to the Word of God, to bury their noses in the truth of God's Word, to listen attentively with their ears to the word of God as it is proclaimed to them because it is worth bearing. What do we learn from that? Here's my exhortation to you. You have borne with my preaching for seventeen years. Bear with the preaching of your next pastor the same way. At First Presbyterian Church you have had a unique blessing. For 177 years, you have always had a pastor who wanted your noses buried in the Word of God on Sunday morning and Sunday evening as he was preaching the Word because he wasn't preaching himself and he wasn't preaching his own ideas, he was preaching the Word of God. And your next pastor will be the same way. I know that because I know your pulpit committee and I know your Session and they will want a pastor who wants your noses buried in the Word of God, hanging on every syllable of God's Word as the Word of God is preached from this pulpit on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. Bear with that preaching because that preaching is for your souls and it's for the living of the Christian life.

If I could add another "p," it would be this - peace, power, providence, propitiation, preaching - because this preaching is so that you know how to live the Christian life. This congregation needs to bear with this letter read to them because it's so that they can live the Christian life. These are the words of life and they teach us the way of life and as we bear with them and as we bear with the faithful minister who brings that word to us, we are prepared to live the Christian life no matter what you're called to do. Oh, dear friends of First Presbyterian Church, believe that God is at work to equip you with every good things to do His will and bear with the preaching that He gives you in His love that is designed to help equip you with every good thing to do His will.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Bless it to our hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Now would you take your hymnals in hand and turn to number 387 and we're going to sing this benediction together.

Receive now God's blessing. Now may the God of peace who brought up again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep, even our Lord Jesus Christ, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Table of Contents

I'd Rather Have Jesus than Angels - Hebrews 1:1-4

More Excellent Than Angels - Hebrews 1:4-14

Neglecting So Great a Salvation - Hebrews 2:1-4

By the Grace of God, He Tasted Death - Hebrews 2:5-9

Surprised By Suffering? - Hebrews 2:10-13

Like His Brethren in All Things - Hebrews 2:14-18

More Glory Than Moses - Hebrews 3:1-6

Don't Stop Believing - Hebrews 3:7-19

The Rest That Remains - Hebrews 4:1-13

Mercy and Grace in Time of Need - Hebrews 4:14-16

Heard Because of His Reverence - Hebrews 5:1-10

It's Hard to Explain - Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Falling Away? - Hebrews 6:4-12

Promise + Oath = Hope - Hebrews 6:13-20

Jesus and Melchizedek - Hebrews 7:1-10

The Guarantee of a Better Covenant - Hebrews 7:11-28

The Mediator of a Better Covenant - Hebrews 8:1-13

The Holy Spirit is Signifying This - Hebrews 9:1-14

For This Reason He Is the Mediator of the New Covenant - Hebrews 9:15-28

Once for All - Hebrews 10:1-18

Draw Near, Hold Fast, Consider How - Hebrews 10:19-25

If We Go on Sinning Wilfully - Hebrews 10:26-39

Faith is. . . ? - Hebrews 11:1-7

By Faith, Abraham and Sarah. . . - Hebrews 11:8-19

By Faith, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. . . - Hebrews 11:20-29

He Disciplines Us for Our Good - Hebrews 12:1-3

The Good of Discipline - Hebrews 12:1-11

Preparation for God's Presence - Hebrews 12:12-17

Mt. Zion - Hebrews 12:18-29

Love The Brethren - Hebrews 13:1-3

Honor Marriage - Hebrews 13:4

Don't Fall in Love with Money - Hebrews 13:5-6

Those Who Led You - Hebrews 13:7

Let Us Go to Jesus - Hebrews 13:8-14

Live Life as a Sacrifice of Praise - Hebrews 13:15-16

Obey Your Leaders - Hebrews 13:17

Pray for Preachers - Hebrews 13:18-19

The Great Shepherd of the Sheep - Hebrews 13:20-25