Reading from Hebrews 11, beginning to read at verse 32. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth, and all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." Father, we thank You for this, Your Word. We thank You for the whole book of Hebrews that we're going to look at this morning. We pray Your blessing upon the preaching of the Word in each one of us. May we be hearers by Your Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I want to begin today's sermon by looking at Hebrews 13, verse 22. Hebrews 13, 22, he says, and I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words." Most of my commentaries on the book of Hebrews I agree that this verse is describing the whole book as being a written sermon. Some translate the phrase, the word of exhortation, as being the message of exhortation, others as the homily of exhortation, others as the sermon of exhortation. But most are agreed that even though it's written, it was designed to be spoken. This was a written speech, and you can see evidence of that throughout the book. For example, in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 5, he writes of what he had been speaking, Greek word laleo, which refers to sounds or uttered words. Same is true in chapter 6, verse 8, when he says, though we speak in this manner. Chapter 9, verse 5, he mentions a topic in passing and he says, of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Didn't say we cannot now write in detail, but we cannot now speak in detail. Chapter 5, verse 11, he says, they tend to be dull of hearing, not of reading, but of hearing. The word indicating listening with the ears. And there are other examples that commentators give. Anyway, commentators point out that the phrase Word of Exhortation in Hebrews 13.22 is exactly the same phrase that was used to describe Paul's preaching in the book of Acts and extra-biblical preaching in Maccabees and in other extra-biblical sources. And so it's generally accepted fact that this was a written sermon that was later published. Now when I discovered that quite a few years ago, I laughed out loud because this sermon would flunk every single homiletics course that I had received in Bible school and later in the seminaries. It's not speaking bad about this book. This is speaking poorly about the seminaries. And so I want to look at the nature of this book and how this sermon was constructed, homiletics professors usually would say that this sermon was too long. Commentators point out, if you read this sermon, it takes about 60 minutes at a normal pastoral pace. Now, I wanted to see what it sounded like, so I read it out loud, but I'm a fast preacher. It took me about 42 minutes. I cram a lot more in probably. But anyway, they say about 60 minutes normally it takes to read that. What surprises some commentaries is that he calls this sermon a short sermon with few words. This is not one of Luke's longer sermons. In chapter 5, he said he tried to keep this simple. He really wanted to give them more in this sermon, but he just knew they were not able to handle it. So I can identify with Luke. He packs a lot into a sermon. I will admit that the words of this verse imply that some people in the congregation might have found it a little bit difficult to understand. He says, and I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I've written to you in few words. Now, the Greek word for bear with is anecho, and it's defined by the dictionary as to endure something, to put up with something. It takes concentration to listen to this book in an audio format. Well, he's telling them something about how members need to be trained to listen. We, over a period of time, begin to get a better and better capacity to hear the kind of sermons that the Scripture wants us to hear. It's a spiritual discipline. Now, here are a few other ways that it would flunk a modern homiletic course. Commentators admit that he preached a fully written-out sermon from a manuscript. He did not have a one-page outline or bullet points. No, he had every word of his sermon written out, much like Jonathan Edwards and other preachers of old did. And nowadays, that is an absolute no-no. You will flunk your course if you preach from a manuscript. in most seminaries today. Now I have preached from a manuscript for years because it helps me to make certain that I am communicating clearly, that I'm not giving words that are undefined. that I'm not making mistakes, and it also helps me to pass along the sermon to other people just like the author of this sermon did. Another big no-no is that this is a 12-point sermon instead of a three-point sermon. This is almost like the preaching of the Puritans. Now, the Puritans would tell you, you really can't get your money's worth out of a three-point sermon. Another no-no in modern preaching is packing too much doctrine into a single sermon. How much doctrine is packed into here? Well, I've read quite a few commentaries and they said that other than Romans, this is the most doctrinally dense and doctrinally packed book of the New Testament. There's a ton of of doctrine in it. Now, homileticians want you to communicate, you know, one doctrine, one central doctrine, maybe two or three, but one doctrine and just drive that home. Well, biblical preaching apparently is not stringing together a bunch of funny stories to be able to illustrate and drive home one point. There are multiple points that biblical sermons are trying to teach, and Hebrews quotes Bible verse after Bible verse to back up his points. It takes a lot of work to make a biblical sermon. A lot of work. Yet another no-no. in modern preaching is that this preacher steps on toes, a lot. Wow, does he step on toes. If he were to be judged in a modern preaching course, they would probably say that he is not positive enough. And of course, this is an inspired sermon, right? So we need to learn from God what is appropriate in sermons, not just from the books. Another no-no is that this is a topical sermon. That has completely fallen out of favor in seminaries and homiletics courses. But I have always believed that the Bible illustrates several kinds of preaching. If you look at all of the different sermons in the Bible, you will discover that the Bible has topical sermons, textual sermons, expository, redemptive, historical, and synthetic. If the Bible gives liberty to do topical sermons, we ought not to criticize topical sermons. In fact, shortly, I hope to be bringing a topical series of sermons for the congregation. But many trainers of preachers advocate for only one kind of preaching in their classrooms. Now, since I mentioned redemptive historical preaching, it can be a biblical approach to preaching. I do want to show how this book contradicts at least one branch of modern redemptive historical preaching. It comes out of the Radical Two Kingdom movement. And at least some of these people say that it is completely inappropriate. It is unbiblical. It is wrong to give any applications in your sermon. They call those applications moralism. I would point out that Hebrews is absolutely jam-packed full of applications, what they would call moralism. Now, it's not really moralism. All it is is application of the truth. In fact, it is my contention you are not even preaching until you apply the Word in a rubber-meets-the-road way. And then last but not least, the preacher very obviously crafted the sermon to meet the needs and the circumstances of his audience. He did not craft this sermon to be timeless, as many people think of timeless sermons nowadays. No, he mentions their persecution by the Jewish community. the robbing of their goods, their temptation to go back to Judaism, the imminent destruction of the nation of Israel, and the temple, and the priesthood, and other things that make the sermon quite dated. When you think about it, it is a dated sermon. Do we have a temple that we're tempted to go back to? No, nobody's tempted to go back to a Jerusalem temple. Do we have a state that is trying to force us to apostatize? Well, not yet. as our congregation made up exclusively of Jews. We might have some Jews, but it's not exclusively made up of Jews. And so this is a book that in some ways, because it is so practical, is dated. But I would argue that it's precisely because the book is so practical to the issues they were going through back then, that it shows us how to apply the Bible to our own circumstances. And what were the circumstances they were going through? Well, Hebrews was written in AD 66 when the church was facing the height of the persecution from both Rome and from the Jews. It seems to be almost exclusively here Jewish persecution, so I believe it takes place in Palestine. But the Jews were pressuring them to convert back to Judaism, and Luke was doing his level best to convince these people to cling to Jesus or they would be eternally lost. The stakes were huge. He appeals to many motivations. both negative and positive, so much so that the late J. Adams, who recently passed away, he said he wished some student would take as their doctoral thesis studying the motivational factors of the book of Hebrews. He says, all by itself, that would make a massive study. It's just an incredible study. I mentioned that I believe Luke wrote this book. While the Apostle Paul is a serious contender for the faith, and I definitely respect that, there's a lot of Pauline kind of teaching in there, there are a number of reasons why most modern scholars think that that is extremely unlikely. First, Paul pledged to sign his name to every epistle that he wrote to a church in 2 Thessalonians 3.17, and this book does not have his name appended to it, and I doubt that Paul broke his promise. Now, to be fair to them, they will say, hey, this is a sermon, this is not an epistle, and so as a sermon He didn't have to have his name appended to it, but if you look at the last verses of Hebrews, there is an appended epistolary kind of a… so it actually functions as an epistle as well. A second, the style, grammar, and vocabulary are quite different from Paul's. This is written in such highly polished Greek that there are only two other books in the New Testament that even come close to it, and that is Luke, and X. Those two. And that's the third reason. There are numerous points of identity between the vocabulary, Hebraism style, and syntax of Hebrews with Luke's writings. Now in my notes I will reference a pretty big book that gives a whole bunch of other reasons that make it almost a slam dunk certainty that Luke wrote this book. Now, if you disagree and you think it's Paul, that's just perfectly okay. There's a lot of debate on this thing. But he wrote it as a sermon that he had delivered to one congregation, then he appended some notes to it before he made a copy to send to another congregation. If you look at your outline, you will notice that he alternates between a theological point and then an application. Another theological point and then an application. And each of these points logically calls these Jewish Christians not to leave Jesus and go back to Judaism. If they try to escape persecution by going back to Judaism, they will suffer eternally in hell because there is no salvation outside of Jesus. Judaism by this time was teaching an unbiblical theology of angels that appealed to people's curiosity and purported to be able to explain a lot of the things that had happened to Israel over the years. But where do they get their theology? Not from the Bible. They got it from the traditions of the elders. And Luke completely opposes that. I won't get into the angelology this morning, but it is a fascinating subject all in its own right. But Paul appeals to the Bible. and to the Bible alone. He gives to God's revelation. Point number one is that Jesus is God and therefore better than angels. If these Jews abandon Jesus, they are abandoning Jehovah or Yehovah Himself, however you want to pronounce that name. Verse 3 says that the Son is the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person. It says Jesus upholds all things in this universe by the word of His power. He'd have to be omnipotent, which is a divine attribute, in order to be able to do that. And even as the Messiah, it says that he now sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, there are cults out there, and you're going to run across them knocking on your doors that will say that Jesus is not God. He has divine-like characteristics, but they will claim that he is the first created angel, and then he created other things by God's power. But if there is one chapter you want to go to when you're dealing with cults to prove the deity of Christ, Hebrews chapter one is fantastic. There are a lot of other great passages out there, but this is a condensed, fantastic analysis, proof of Christ's divinity. Let's read verses five and following. For to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you? And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. He's saying, God never said those words to any angel, which means, if you've got even a lick of logic in your head, it means Jesus is not an angel, right? If he never said those words to an angel, Jesus is not an angel, a simple logic. In verse 6, he makes another argument. All good angels in the Bible refuse to be worshipped, but verse 6 has God commanding all the angels to worship Jesus. It says, but when He again brings the firstborn into the world, that would be Christ's birth, He, the Father, says, let all the angels of God worship Him. Worship who? Worship Jesus. And that's exactly what happened at Christ's birth according to Luke chapter 2. This commanded worship shows that Jesus is God because it is a blasphemy to worship anyone but God. And if you read the first and the second commandments, it indicates you cannot bow down, you cannot worship in any fashion, anything in all of creation, only God can receive that worship. So again, it's a great proof of the divinity of Christ. His next argument is in verses seven through nine, where he quotes scripture that explicitly calls Jesus God. and of the angels, he says, who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But to the sun, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. And so verse 8 is being said to the sun, And the Son is being addressed as, O God. Very, very clear proof. Now, Jesus, because he's both God and man, also has a God, the Father. as man, right? And so the Father is God, Son is God, Jesus is both God and man. And chapter 2 is going to be emphasizing His manhood, but chapter 1 emphasizes His divinity. His next argument is in verses 10 through 12. These verses quote Psalm 102 as being directly addressed to the Son as well. Now I want you to notice that the word LORD is in all capital letters, at least if you have a New King James Version. all capital letters, and it's just to clue us into the fact that in the Old Testament, Psalm 102, that is a reference to Jehovah, Yehovah. Okay, well, he's saying this is addressed to Jesus. If it's addressed to Yehovah, and it's addressed to Jesus, Jesus is Yehovah. Let's read that. And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak. You will fold them up and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will not fail. Verses 13 through 14, again, deny that Jesus is an angel, but to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? So it is crystal clear that chapter one not only overturned a whole bunch of heretical doctrines about angels that the Pharisees and Sadducees and other people had. But it overturns the idea that Jesus is not God. It shows him to be Yehovah God and far greater than the angels or anything else in creation. So it stands as the perfect introduction to the rest of the whole book. And that's why I spent more time on it. In chapter two, he dives straight into the application of this glorious doctrine. If they are tempted to abandon Jesus and go back to Judaism, They will be abandoning the God of the Old Testament, Yehoah himself, and therefore they will face Yehoah's righteous wrath. It's a very logical application. I want you to notice he is not overturning the Old Testament as so many false interpreters of Hebrews make it out to be. He's even upholding the civil laws of the Old Testament. Let's read those verses 1 through 4. Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the words spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, I mean, New Testament is saying the Old Testament civil penalties were just, right? A just reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. Okay, let's move on. Luke's second theological point is that if Jesus is the perfect incarnate man, then abandoning Jesus will be abandoning the only man who has ever kept God's law perfectly. He had to be fully God, chapter one, and he had to be fully man, chapter two, in order to be our Savior. And this says he was the perfect man prophesied by the Old Testament to be our Messiah. Verse five, for he has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels. Now, unfortunately, the new King James does not translate the Greek word mellow. It just doesn't appear there. The word mellow, which is in all of the Greek manuscripts, means about to. So it should be translated this way, for he has not put the world about to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. The word world is oikumene, which the dictionary defines, quote, as the earth as an inhabited and administered region. And it goes on to say, the dictionary goes on to say that it explicitly excludes heaven. So the world to come has nothing to do with heaven, has nothing to do with eternity. He's talking about this earth. Oikumene is the perfect word to describe the millennial world that was symbolized by the conquest of Canaan in the Old Testament under Joshua. And that millennial world starts in 8070, not 8030, as so many of my friends believe. It starts, according to Revelation 20, in 8070 after the Tribulation. Now, he will get into more details about how Joshua And Canaan symbolized Christ taking over the world through the Great Commission, chapters 3 and 4. Let me just summarize, though, for you here. When Joshua, Moses, and the Israelites left Egypt, when did they leave? It was on Passover, right? When did they emerge out of the Red Sea? Three days later, Feast of Firstfruits, same day that Jesus rose from the grave. 50 days later, they appear at Mount Sinai, the giving of the law, that's Pentecost, okay? And so even though they were established as a kingdom, there was a world about to come, Canaan, but they hadn't gotten into it yet. Until they crossed the Jordan River 40 years later, they would not actually be taking the conquest or what chapter four speaks of as the rest. Well, in the same way, Jesus established the kingdom, died on Passover, rose on the first fruits, gave empowerment of the spirit on Pentecost, gave great advancement of the church during the next 40 years, But it's not until 80, 70, 40 years later that the oikumene would begin to be claimed as nation after nation began to be Christianized. And Luke says that this world of which you and I are now living in was not subdued by angels. It was subdued by the perfect man, Jesus, and the new humanity in Christ, united to him. So verses 6 through 8 is a quote of Psalm 8, and it's applied to Jesus. Verse 8 ends that quote by saying, you have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him, but Now we do not yet see all things but under him. I want you to notice that phrase. We do not yet see all things but under him. There is a gradual conquest of Canaan. Verse 9, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. So they were already experiencing Christ being the King. He's seated at the right hand of the Father. He is crowned with glory and honor. And he had to go through a perfect life. He had to pour out the Holy Spirit. Well, he'd redeem his people first, win them to salvation, sing praises through the assembled saints, use those saints to advance his kingdom. So there is some eschatology built in there that I don't have time to get into that I think is marvelous. Now, what's the application? Verses 17 through 18 says that Jesus can sympathize with you and me because he went through every trial that you and I went through. And so when you're discouraged with the dangers of taking the conquest of Canaan, so to speak, just realize he's the one who goes with you. You can run to Jesus and know that he can give you the strength to stand tall and enter what Canaan symbolized. Next, apostate Jews claimed that if Christians didn't come back to Judaism, they were abandoning Moses. I mean, isn't it blasphemy to abandon Moses, they ask? And Luke shows how ridiculous that claim was. He points out that Moses not only pointed to Jesus, But he shows how Jesus is greater than Moses, and he shows, look, you guys don't even believe Moses if you don't believe in Jesus. That's how it comes. So he uses an illustration of a builder of a house who's greater than the house. So the one who commissioned Moses, gave Moses revelation, sustained Moses, worked through Moses, is obviously greater than Moses. He's not putting Moses down at all. He says Moses was totally faithful in verse five. But in what way was he faithful? He was faithful to carry out the commission of God the Son, who had commissioned him, and he was faithful to point to the times of the New Covenant when God the Son would become incarnate. So his logic is, hey guys, To abandon Jesus means you're abandoning Moses. You don't even understand what Moses is talking about if you do not look to Jesus. You've disbelieved what Moses said. And the therefore in verse seven begins the application of the third point. It, too, is a warning. He quotes Psalm 95, which gives a vivid description of how the first generation of Israelites backslid and could not enter Canaan. He's saying, look, the same thing could happen to you if you're not careful. Both backslidings amount to the same thing because they're an abandonment of God the Son. So he gives them very practical encouragements to exhort each other to stay faithful, to believe God's promises. It's beautiful preaching. Luke's fourth theological point is that Jesus is better than Joshua. Now there were revolutionaries in AD 66, who were pressuring Jewish Christians to join them in fighting Rome and to restore the glory days under Joshua. They appealed to Joshua. Josephus talks about about these revolutionaries. But Luke points out these revolutionaries, they have the same unbelief as the unbelieving generation. They did not have the faith of the Joshua generation. Turn with me to Joshua, chapter five. And verses 13 to 18 for a very interesting background. This is the pre-incarnate manifestation of the Son of God to Joshua, and it very much relates to what Luke is trying to impress on his hearers. Joshua 5, beginning to read at verse 13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? Now, this is exactly what the revolutionaries in Luke's day were asking, are you for us or are you against us? And take a look at verse 14. So he said, no, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have come. Joshua didn't ask for a yes or no. He asked, you know, God to pick sides. Are you for us or against us? And God said, no, that's the wrong question to be asking. It's not, am I for you? It's, are you for us? For me, I should say. And what's Joshua's response? Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. This is no mere angel. OK, angels don't allow anyone to worship them. And yet this one not only received worship, but made the very ground holy. This is none other This commander of the armies of the Lord is none other than the pre-incarnate son of God, the pre-incarnate Jesus. And because Joshua's heart is right, he falls down and worships. He wants God's glory to be lifted up, God's kingdom to be built, and God's commands to be followed. Well, Hebrews 4 shows how Jesus is the commander of armies today. It wasn't Joshua who won the battles back then, it was the commander of armies who won those battles. Take a look at Hebrews 4, 8-10. Now, the word Joshua and Jesus are exactly the same word in the Greek. Joshua's very name shows that Joshua couldn't save. His name means Jehovah saves, right? It's pointing to God the Son at that time and also pointing forward to the Lord Jesus. It's the commander of armies who saves. Verse 9, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. That's literally there remains a Sabbath keeping for the people of God. So the Sabbath was a symbol that pointed to Jesus. And once Jesus came, the Sabbath would stop pointing forward to Jesus by being at the celebrated at the end of the week. And now it would point back to Jesus by being celebrated at the beginning of the week, on Sunday, on the day of resurrection. Okay, so the Sabbath is a symbol of this change in covenants. Unless you rest in Christ's accomplished salvation, there is no conquest of the earth that will work and no Joshua who can save. Verse 10. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his. Just as Joshua took off his shoes, worshipped the commander of armies, and rested in his plan, we will not be successful until we embrace and worship Jesus and rest in his grace for conquest. So Joshua worshipped the greater Joshua, Jesus. He looked forward to the greater Joshua Jesus. Now notice this is precisely the application in the next therefore in verses 11 through 13. Here comes his application. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." It's a rich, section you could preach a whole sermon on. But I just want to mention, unlike Joshua's metal sword, we have the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, right? Unlike the rest appointed by God back then, which was the land of Canaan, our conquest is the whole world. And it will one day enter into rest through the gospel and through the gospel alone. And Jesus, the commander of armies, who is greater than Joshua, is up for that task. But next point, we're not only following the greater Joshua, we're also following a priest who is greater than any of the Old Testament saints. The Jews accused the Christians of blasphemy for abandoning the God-ordained priesthood. I mean, I can just imagine these people opening up their Bibles to Leviticus and saying, you guys are out of order here. You're not coming to the temple. You're not submitting to the priests. This is what Leviticus commands. And so it was an argument that had to be answered. And so Luke from chapter four, verse 14, all the way through chapter five, verse 11, argues, hey guys, Jesus is the one, as the pre-incarnate Son of God, he is the one who set up the priesthood, and those priests were all pointing forward to Jesus, and you don't even understand the significance of what the priesthood was all about if you neglect Jesus. That's why God gave the priests, was to point to Jesus. So he starts by asserting that Jesus is a better high priest in chapter 4, verses 14 through 16. And these are verses you need to memorize. These are fantastic verses. Seeing then that 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 cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." So unlike the priests that these Jews were tempted, Jewish Christians were tempted to go back to, Jesus was fully God. Now Jesus is also fully human, but unlike the priests he was tempted to go back to, he was a perfect human. Yes, Jesus was tempted in all points just like we are, yet without sin, unlike those priests that tempted to go back to. So unlike the Jewish priests of Christ's day, this high priest was sympathetic. Caiaphas, the high priest at that time, was not sympathetic at all. This high priest will help you. Caiaphas would not help you. This high priest was a source of grace. Caiaphas was not. And in the first verses of chapter five, Luke points out a number of ways in which Jesus was superior to all of the priests of the Old Testament. He was the priest anticipated in Genesis from a different line than that of Levi, a priest who was also a king. Now the application is actually quite pointed and scary. It needed to be scary in light of the fact that they were in danger of apostatizing, listening to these Jews who were luring them into apostasy. And Luke makes clear, if you abandon Jesus to go back to the priests of the temple, then no matter how many privileges you've already experienced in the covenant, You're completely without hope. You're headed toward hell. Let's read chapter six, verses four through six. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put him to an open chain. I want you to notice, first of all, that the reprobate can, even if they're members of the church, they can be enlightened and partake of communion and receive, they can fake being Christians. They can receive spiritual gifts, even though they are fake Christians. They can do miracles. Did you know that Judas, he was never saved. Judas had spiritual gifts. Judas performed miracles. He did. And here is the reason why. Many benefits of the covenant reach everyone in the church even though they are not saved yet. There are many benefits to being a member of a church. For example, you're protected from Satan to a high degree. When you're excommunicated, you're handed over to Satan, his territory. But inside the church, you're protected to a high degree. But church membership does not save you. And I will point out that many people who might fall away have not lost their salvation. Luke says they weren't saved in the first place. As 1 John 2, 19 words it, 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 they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us." Here's how Hebrews 6, 9 words the same truth. But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. He says, if you're truly saved, you're going to persevere. And Luke goes on to expand on that theme in verses 10 through 12, that the truly saved will persevere. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. In other words, God's not unjust to cast you away if you are a true believer. Okay, truly saved, but perseverance is an evidence of that salvation. So Luke goes on to say, verse 11, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Now in the next big section, Luke answers the charges of Jews who claimed that you needed to abandon Christianity in order to be faithful to Abraham. who didn't want to be a faithful son of Abraham. Now, I don't have time to show it this morning, but Luke basically uses the same logic as he did earlier. He says, hey, the same Son of God who saved Abraham and preserved Abraham and provided for Abraham is therefore greater than Abraham, and for that matter, Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, which proves that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham and is also greater than any of Abraham's descendants, including Levi. And he also points out that, well, Jesus is either literally, as the pre-incarnate manifestation, literally Melchizedek, or at a minimum, he is a type of Jesus. But either way, it proves that to abandon Jesus in order to go back to Judaism, you would be abandoning Abraham, whose faith looked forward to Jesus. In effect, he's saying, do not let these Judaizers fool you. They are not followers of Abraham themselves. If they were, they would have submitted to Jesus. So this whole book teaches us on how to do presuppositional apologetics. I can't even get into it this morning. I mean, you could do an entire lesson on how Beautifully, Hebrews uses presuppositional apologetics. It's just mind-blowing. It's a fantastic study. Next, Luke answers the slander of those who said that Jesus and Christians were violating the covenants of the Old Testament. And Luke says, nonsense. They're the ones who are violating the Old Testament. Luke basically says that they're disbelieving the Old Testament because of their man-made traditions. And if you abandon Jesus because of those, you've completely missed the whole purpose of the old covenants because they were promising that Jesus would come. They were anticipating Jesus, anticipating the new covenant, which would be the covenant of fulfillment, as Jeremiah says. The new covenant unfolds and fulfills them. Now his application in chapter 8 verse 13 is this, in that he says a new covenant he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. And I want you to notice that phrase, is ready to vanish away. The old covenant did not vanish away in AD 30 when the new covenant was ratified. established. The new covenant that would replace the old covenant was ratified by Jesus in AD 30. That made the old covenant destined to end, but it didn't end. Luke says, what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Every vestige of the old covenant vanished away when the temple was destroyed in AD 70. So there really is an overlap of the two covenants. New Covenant was ratified in 8030, Old Covenant ended in 8070. And so when you draw, there's really an overlap between those two. Now moving on to Jews who were tempted to go back to the beautiful temple in order to worship God as dictated in the Old Testament, Luke says the same thing that he did earlier. He points out You don't believe anything that the Old Testament stood for and symbolized if you reject Jesus. You have missed the whole point of the temple. In any case, both the earthly tabernacle and temple were replaced by a heavenly temple that is far better. By the way, he points out that the The heavenly temple or tabernacle was the pattern for the building of the earthly one. Well, that means you aren't losing anything when you lose the physical temple. We've got the pattern. And the earthly sacrifices are made obsolete by Christ's final sacrifice of himself. So he sums up the entire sacrificial system, and we keep the intent of that ceremonial law when we cling to Jesus. And you get another incredibly scary application in chapter 10, verses 19 through 39. I mean, you can see Luke is not afraid of stepping on toes. He definitely confronts people. He's saying to sacrifice animals and go back to Judaism after all that Jesus has done is to trample underfoot the blood of Christ and to insult the spirit of grace. And yet you've got dispensationalists who say, yeah, in the future we're going to go back to animal sacrifices in the temple. Utterly, utterly ridiculous. Verse 31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I think this is a chapter that needs to be read by the gracious of today who refuse to acknowledge God's judgments in the church. But it was certainly a powerful argument against Judaism having any claim to God whatsoever. There is no Judeo-Christian consensus. We follow the Old Testament. Judaism does not. They follow the Talmud. But I do want you to notice that he clarifies once again, he's not talking about losing your salvation. You cannot lose your salvation. But even though that's true, There are many people who will end up in hell who thought that they were saved. So his clarification of verse 39 is, but we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believed the saving of the soul. So if you apostatize, you're drawing back to perdition, then you didn't believe in the first place, is basically what he is saying. If you truly believe, you will persevere. If you're truly saved, you will persevere. Next, Luke gives a beautiful litany of Old Testament heroes of the faith that all pointed to Jesus. Now, while all the Jews of Luke's day loved the heroes of the Old Testament, Luke points out They didn't follow the lead of those Old Testament heroes because those Old Testament heroes were pointing to Jesus. They all pointed to Jesus, not themselves. They were building God's kingdom, not their own. They were fighting God's battles, not their own. And his application in chapter 12, verses 1 through 2, keeps his central theme going. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses," he's referring to all of the heroes of the faith that he's laid out before them in chapter 11, "'Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.'" So he keeps pointing them to Jesus and urging them to persevere. He says, we're already in the kingdom. Jesus is already seated at the right hand of the throne of God. We went to a pastor's meeting this past week, which I should have invited you to, Robert, it was a great meeting. Perry said he was talking to Tony Evans, and Tony Evans said something to the, somebody had complained to Tony Evans, you shouldn't be bringing the Bible into politics, we don't believe in a theocracy, and Tony Evans said, too late, Jesus is already king. I thought, wow, that was great. But he's saying, Judaism has nothing whatsoever to offer. They've completely missed the boat. So the only question to these Christians was, are you willing to cross the Jordan with the greater Joshua and follow the commander of armies into the dangerous calling of overturning everything that stands against the kingdom of heaven? His next point is to give a theology of family, which we can't get into, but it's a marvelous theology. And he gives it so that they can appreciate that the troubles they are experiencing is not evidence that Christ is not for them. Quite the opposite. It's evidence he loves them, is disciplining them. He wants them to grow up. These Jewish Christians thought, hey, if we go back to Judaism and stay secret believers in the Messiah, then maybe we can avoid all of these troubles. And Luke insists that's misplaced, that's a dangerous idea. He wants them to evaluate whether they are legitimate children or illegitimate children. And the application presses home the need for perseverance, not caving in, beginning at chapter 12, verse 12. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down at the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright, For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." Now, to the Jews who kept emphasizing all that was involved, we're in the next point, all that was involved in the two mountains, Mount Sinai and the Temple Mount, Mount Zion, Luke shows how the Jews of his day, they were not living up to the meaning of those two mountains at all. Whereas true believers in the church They are caught up to the heavenly mountain. They worship before God's very throne. They have the reality that the Jews in the temple were missing. OK, both of those mountains were designed to lead to Jesus. So you get the moral law that was given on Mount Sinai. Can anybody keep it? No. So it's a pedagogue leading us to Jesus, who alone can enable us to keep that moral law. Same is true of the other mount where the ceremonial law was given on the temple. It was the gospel visually pictured, picturing Jesus and saying, he's the only way that you can be saved. So the ceremonial law taught them the gospel, led them to Jesus. And the question is not the nature of the physical mountains. The question is whether you have the reality that those two mountains symbolize. This is just an incredibly brilliantly constructed book. It's a powerful argument against those Judaizers and against apostasy. And his application is wonderful, too. He quotes the shaking passage from Haggai 2. and shows how everything that was affected by the fall in this universe will eventually be replaced by Jesus. Now, I preached on this extensively when I preached on Haggai, so I won't touch on it much right now, but the bottom line is, why would you want to go back to something that's imminently going to be shaken out, completely replaced? Everything of the old economy will be shaken and removed so that what cannot be shaken will remain forever. Now, this shaking process of Jesus can be extremely uncomfortable. And we need to be willing to have our own lives shaken so that what doesn't belong in our lives is gone, and what belongs in the kingdom stays. You see, Christ is in the universe shaking business, but he's also in the business of shaking up your lives, making you uncomfortable, driving you to his grace in his kingdom, and making all of the things that don't count and will not last for eternity be done away with. What alone is unshaken? Take a look at verses 28 through 29. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire." So point by point, Luke is decimating the arguments of Jews who were trying to convince the Christians to apostatize. And application by application, he was motivating them to persevere. Luke's final point of the sermon is that they shouldn't be surprised by suffering. You know, the generation that followed Joshua into the conquest, they suffered a lot, but it was suffering that advanced the kingdom. It was a glorious privilege to suffer because it meant Canaan can be won for our children. Who doesn't want to suffer some if it means that our children and our grandchildren will benefit? The church of today has been called to faithfully minister even in the midst of hardship. We are called to be soldiers. This book is a fantastic answer to Judaistic legalism, but it's also a call to persevere, to be good soldiers. And using the image of Jesus carrying his cross outside of Jerusalem and bearing the shame and scoffing of the leadership, he says, and this is verses 13 through 17, therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach, for here we have no continuing city. In fact, that city was about to be mown down, completely destroyed. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore, by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." So I believe that everything up through verse 17 had already been preached in one congregation. And when Luke sends the next congregation a copy of what he had preached, he adds verses 18 through 25 as some additional personal notes and an additional blessing. Now, some people think that it's the additional greetings at the first congregation. I think the evidence points to the fact he's forwarding a sermon that he's already written to the second congregation. Now we have covered a ton of territory, and I think you can see it's impossible to adequately cover Hebrews in one sermon, but it is a fabulous sermon. I want to pronounce his blessing upon you by way of conclusion, and you'll find this blessing or benediction in verses 20 through 21. So receive this from the Lord. Now may the God of peace who brought our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Father, we thank you for this book. What a gift to the church. What a great instruction on how we need to be better hearers of the Word and how we need to be better preachers of the Word, non-apologetics. And it's such a great book on so many different fronts. Help us, Father, to grow through it. We bless you for having equipped us through your Word. And I pray that as we continue to fellowship and be as iron and sharpening iron, encouraging each other during this day, that we would live out the admonitions of this book to bless each other with Sabbath conversation. Do bless us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.