Hello, and this is Hackberry House. Welcome once more to God's Word. Lord Jesus, the book of Hebrews is so deep and so difficult in places, but you are so able to help us, and I pray you will in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're in the book of Hebrews as we travel through the Bible. We were supposed to do this in a year. 52 lessons is all there is, but it's turned into a little bit different than that. In fact, The written form is still 52 lessons. You can't change that. But we're on lesson 120 now. 120. In fact, I think it's 121. I keep getting that confused, don't I? Lesson 121. We've got, Lord willing, after this, eight more lessons. Maybe more, maybe less. We'll see how that goes. Go to the library page on my website, which is at myheartcry.net and find this lesson. It's lesson 48, as I said. 48. And when you find it, print it out and follow along with us when we give the answers to the questions or just sit and listen. We'll go to the text most of our lesson anyway. Also on the website there are lessons on Romanism, Ecumenism, The Last Days, I have things there from the Cook County Chaplain here. I have things from ex-priests and ex-nones, and I'd like you to go there and see what you might be able to find. But the greatest bulk of what we do on the website now is the teaching of the Word of God. For when a man truly is exposed to the light, the darkness has to flee. We're in Hebrews chapter 8. Lord willing, I'm going to finish this book today, these last six chapters. I like the way he starts chapter 8 with a summary, because I have to tell you anyway where we've been, but the writer of Hebrews does that in chapter 8, verse 1. He says, this is the main point of what we've been saying. So, I'll let him summarize it. We have the kind of high priest that we need. The kind of high priest he was talking about in books to come, and books sorry, chapters in the past here, of one who understands us totally. And we needed that kind of a high priest. He says, we've got that kind. We've got one who is actually seated at the right hand of God, a minister of the sanctuary, the true tabernacle. See, there is in heaven the true tabernacle. When you see in the book of Revelation how heaven is open, you'll see the Ark of the Covenant up there. that there really is a tabernacle that God has in heaven where all that he does gets done. All that the tabernacle that we know about is about is that it was a shadow of the true. It was just a picture of the true reality of the tabernacle of heaven. And even though it was a very important and very holy place and God would appear there and manifest his presence, still it was only a picture of the total reality of what God is and what he's doing. Verse 3, every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. And so, you'd think Jesus would have something to offer too. Well, indeed he does. He offered himself. If he were on earth, he wouldn't even be a priest, since it says there already are priests who offer these other gifts that the law says to give. So Jesus is not on earth now offering sacrifices. Let's get that out of our mind right now. He is on the earth, but that's not what he's doing. He's not offering sacrifices. These priests that were on earth, the Jewish priests, again were just the shadow of what was coming. He said, see that you make all things according to the pattern. When he spoke, to Moses when he speaks to Noah. Everything has to be done according to the pattern. But now, we've got something better than the pattern. We've got the reality. We've got a better covenant. There it is again in verse 6. It's better. Why? Because it was established on better promises. He says that the old covenant, the first one, verse 7, had been a perfect one. We wouldn't have been even thinking about a new one. If men would have been able to obey perfectly the old law, we wouldn't be thinking about a new law. a new priesthood and rituals? No. But God had already known that this wasn't going to work. He knew it a long time ago. And He prophesied in Jeremiah 31-31. It's recorded here in Hebrews 8-8. Behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant. That's where we get the idea of the New Testament, the new covenant. And the New Testament, technically speaking, in God's sight, is not a book. It's not the 27 books that we think of that come after Malachi. They are a true record of what the covenant is all about, but the covenant itself is something different. Because verse 9, it's not going to be like the covenant I made with their fathers. What kind of a covenant was that? That was words on a book. And they broke that one to pieces. No, not going to do that anymore. Verse 10, this time I'm going to put my laws in their mind write my laws in their heart, and I'll be their God, and they'll be my people. That's the kind of covenant I'm going to have now, when this all comes to pass. And according to the writer of Hebrews, it's coming to pass now. It's already come to pass. There'll be a greater fulfillment of it someday. Especially verse 11. But verse 11 is true today also. It says, None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none will teach his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me. Well, not everybody knows the Lord today. Not true. Everybody that's in the kingdom today knows the Lord. Anybody that's in this covenant knows the Lord. That's how you get into the covenant. In the old covenant, you had a lot of people running around that were in the old covenant way, but they weren't in the covenant. They didn't know the Lord. It was possible even to rise to the status of king and not really know the Lord. But no, not in the new time. In the days that are coming, in the days of the coming of the Son of Man, when He comes, everybody on the earth will know the Lord. But even now, that kingdom that is established among us now in the church of Jesus Christ, everyone that's truly in the church knows the Lord. So, what's becoming obsolete in the days of Hebrews is gone by now. It's long gone. this man's day it was going. Then he starts talking about that earthly sanctuary, how the different things there were in the tabernacle. Again, they were all pictures, just pictures. But he talks about them. He talks about the division of the tabernacle, that there was the first part where they had a lampstand. We talked about all this a long time ago. There was a table. There was a showbread. All of that was the sanctuary or the holy place. Don't call your church, the meeting place, the sanctuary. That's an Old Testament idea. The holy place now is your heart. Of course the church is, but there are no buildings and no rooms known as the sanctuary anymore. Don't call it that. It's not a tabernacle anymore. It's not a house. It's not a tent where God lives. It's a tent where God's people go. but it's not the same as the Old Testament buildings. Then there was that second room that was called the Most Holy Place, the holiest of all. Now, you know, these things that were in the Holy Place, the lampstand, the light being Christ, the table where the offering was made, that's Christ being laid on that table, the bread, you know, the showbread itself is Christ. All these things picturing Christ or some aspect of his ministry. In the Holy of Holies you had the altar of incense, that's the prayers of the saints, the Ark of the Covenant, that's where the Word of God is, the manna, the tablets, and all of these things are just pictures of things that were to come. He says we're not even going to talk about these things in detail, verse 9, verse 5, and I agree with him. I'm not going to do that either because that's not what this is about right now. So he said the priest would go into the first part of the temple, but into the second part, the high priest would go, and he would go once a year, and he'd offer things for himself. Now, Jesus didn't have to do that. When he went in, his sins were already taken care of. He didn't have any sins, excuse me. Verse 8, the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. Not yet made manifest. What? This veil. This veil was covering between the two places, and only the high priest could go in, and he could only go in once a year, that was telling us it wasn't available yet. So he was just going in there as a picture, as a picture of what would happen one day, but the way was not open to all the people yet. And he would go in there, but he couldn't make himself perfect, or couldn't make the people who sacrificed perfect, he just couldn't do it. It was only about foods and drinks and washings and ordinances. That's all it was to picture what would come. But Christ! But Christ! You see the big comparison here in verse 11. He came as High Priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle. Not made of this creation. What was the tabernacle? Jesus called His home body the temple. That was the holy place. Not with the blood of goats and calves. No, no, no. His own blood. And not all the time, but once for all. There it is for the first time in verse 12. We're going to see it again several times in this book. You need to know these words. You need to hear these words. Once for all. It is finished. It's done. He went in one time. He doesn't need to keep going back. He's not a weak, wimpy Savior. He's a powerful Savior. He did what He did, and it's done. And you can trust it to stay done. He obtained eternal redemption. The blood of bulls and goats, in a sense, because they looked ahead to Christ, purified people, they were told to do that. But it wasn't really taking away their sin, but how much more the true blood, the blood of Christ, who offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, how much more will that not purge your conscience from dead works? That's what you needed. That's what we all needed, was the perfect blood. So the sacrifices are not being made today. It is finished. The blood was given. He's the mediator of a new covenant then. He is the one who stands between God and man and says, I offer myself. And God accepted that. And he had to die because whenever you have a testament, verse 16, you have to have somebody dying. Wherever there's a testament, the one who made the testament has to die because if he's still alive, his will does not go into effect. But when he died, his will went into effect. Even the first covenant had death involved. Somebody had to die. That was animals. Again, that was just looking ahead. And Moses, when he was sprinkling things around, verse 20, said to the people, this is the blood of the covenant. This is the death. This is death. That means the covenant in effect. Because somebody died. And they just had to keep showing that death and showing that death and showing that death all through the old covenant times. Because without shedding of blood, no remission, but when Jesus came, he died once. And after he died, that testament went into effect. So what he was doing was fulfilling all the imagery of the Old Testament. Verse 23, the copies of the things in the heavens were all fulfilled, were all purified with ease. But the heavenly things themselves, with better sacrifices. So when they did what they were supposed to do, God honored that on a temporary basis. But when Christ did what He did, He honored it on a permanent basis. Verse 24. Christ hasn't entered some temporary holy place that people made and people kept destroying. Oh, no, no. These are copies of the truth. But no, He went into heaven itself. He went into heaven and has appeared in the presence of God for us. Not just in the presence of the tabernacle of the high priest or in that holy place. Oh, no. But in heaven. And he doesn't have to keep offering himself. I know I've said it before. I'm going to say it again, though. Verse 25. Not that he should offer himself often. How silly to think of Jesus being offered often, like the high priest. That's putting Jesus on the same basis, same par, as these Old Testament priests. No. It said he would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but Jesus didn't suffer often. He suffered once. Now, once, once, once, get it in your heart. At the end of the age, he's appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Christ, verse 28, was offered once. Will there never be another time? Oh, yes, he's coming back. Not to offer himself, though. He's coming back for those that are waiting for him to finish the work, the salvation that he began then. So, chapter 10 moves on with that same tone. The law was just a shadow. It couldn't make people perfect. Because if it could make people perfect, then they could have just stopped going back. It'd be done. The worshipers, once purged, would have no more consciousness of sin, verse 2. But, instead, every year, every year, There's the reminder of sins. Every year the Jews are reminded that they are a sinful people and they're willing to accept that, it seems, until we help them enumerate some of their sins and then they don't want to talk about it. I trust you're not that way. Gentiles can be that way too. We forget the pain that we caused Christ and that we still cause Him. When He came into the world, verse 5, Jesus said, Sacrifice and offering you did not want. Don't need any more sacrifice. Don't need any more offerings. The animals, even though you commanded it, that was not your heart of hearts. What you needed and wanted and desired was a perfect sacrifice. You desired for you yourself to give yourself for your people. That's what you desired and that's what you did. And you prepared a body for me, Jesus said. Father, Son, Spirit working together in this mystery called Trinity. Not necessarily should we call it that, because it's not a Bible word, but that's what it has been called. The three in one, devising a plan whereby God could be just and be the justifier also. Where God himself could give himself fully for his people. Oh, how he loved you and me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices you had no pleasure. And so I said, this is Jesus speaking in heaven, behold, I have come, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God. In the book, which book, I'm not sure. But we know it's written in the grand old book called the Bible. It's written over and over and over. It's written that Jesus came. to do the will of God. And because He did it, we can live. So, He takes away the first covenant here. This is where the first covenant ended. If somebody asks you, where is the end of the Old Testament? Don't tell them Malachi. It ended when Jesus offered Himself and breathed His last breath. That's when the covenant ended. And the new covenant began. when Jesus rose from the dead. That's when He established the second. We're living in the days of the second covenant now. It's a different arrangement between God and man and we're waiting for Him to come and tell us the next step. We know some of the things from Scripture, but oh, we have so much that's in our future. It's through this will that we've been sanctified, He says. covenant that we've been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus. And there it is again, once for all. Once for all. Chapter 10, verse 11, talks about the priests a little bit more. Talks about the sacrifices that they made and the futility of it, the vanity of it. They couldn't ever take away sins. They did what they were told to do. living in vain or in disobedience by doing this. But still it was just a shadow. And when Jesus came, he offered one sacrifice for sin forever. And he sat down. Someone said, there's no chair in the temple. There was no chair in the tabernacle. Isn't that the truth? There was no chair there. The high priest could never sit down because his work was never finished. He went back outside and went about his life for the next year. Jesus, when he was finished doing what he did, sat down. And he's been sitting there waiting until his enemies are made his footstools. Now, here would be an opportunity, if ever there was one, for the writer of Hebrews to insert whatever he could about Roman altars, Roman masses. He could tell the people many times when the Bible here is saying once, once for all, he could explain of course this means something else and really we're going to be offering him up on our altars all the time. He could have explained that to us if it were the truth, but it's not the truth. It's a lie. It's a lie. It's not there. Silence in the Scripture means shut up. Don't say things. Don't create things. When God has not spoken, there is no Mass. There is no sacrifice. There is not that kind of an altar today, a physical altar. No. Verse 14, by one offering, He perfected forever those who are being sanctified. How many times does this brother have to say it? before we believe it. But it's done. It's finished. And so, brothers, verse 19, since we can enter now boldly into the Holy of Holies, to enter right where Jesus is and appropriate His blood for us, let's do it by this new and living way. What's the new and living way? It's through Him, Jesus. Through His flesh that He gave for us. He gave His flesh. That was the veil that He's talking about. Through the veil that is His flesh. That's the way that He consecrated for us, His flesh. He died for us. He gave Himself for us. And if you believe that with all of your heart, and confess it before men, you will be saved. We can draw near, it says in 22, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. Our bodies sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's the blood of Jesus Christ that's sprinkled here. Our hearts are sprinkled. This is all figurative here. Our bodies washed. I believe that must be figurative also. Just as the Old Testament offerings had a washing involved. And so, spiritually, our spiritual body is washed by the water of the Holy Ghost. Because all those things are happening to us, we can hold on to this Jesus. He did this for us. He did it once for us. He gave us assurance that it was for us if we'll just cling to Him and believe that He did it for us. Hold on to this confession. Don't waver. He's faithful. He's faithful. He promised. And He's faithful. Instead of wavering, Encourage one another. And let's not forsake getting together. Now here, verse 25, do you see this context? We usually take this verse way out. And it's okay even the way we use it. But let's put it back where it belongs, right in the middle of this exhortation to every day be telling people about the blood of Jesus. To tell each other about what Jesus did for us. To tell each other that because Jesus did this for us, We need to be doing this for others. The good works, they're ours to perform. He says, get together, get together, not as much as you have been normally, but more, more than you have been normally. That's what it says. So much the more as you see the day approaching. So don't slack off and think, well, we don't need this quite as much anymore now. Wrong. You need it more than you ever did. You'll always need it more and more as you grow in Christ. And then another warning. Another warning. Do with this what you have to. We sin willfully. If we sin willfully, after we've received the knowledge of truth. This is talking about a person who knows the truth and looks square into the eyes of Jesus and says, I don't care. I'm going to do what I want. And he begins willfully to sin against the truth. Keeps on sinning. Keeps on sinning. It says there is no other sacrifice for sin. There's nothing else this man can do if he's turned away from God. There's no other sacrifice that's been given. In fact, this person should start fearing judgment and indignation. You see, the sacrifice was preached to him and he did not receive it. He received the knowledge of the truth in his head, evidently. but didn't receive the sacrifice for his sins, and there's no other sacrifice. If you've been told the truth, and you don't want it, there's no other sacrifice. Although it does say, we. And those who don't want to go the Calvinistic route, don't point out that these are believers that are being talked to. Is it possible that that is true here? If it's true that believers are being talked to, Is it also possible that we're only talking about death, untimely death, cut off from the Church and sent to be with the Lord, but in a very negative frame of mind and with very little, if any, rewards on that day? But look what it says on the other hand. Forgive me for confusing you, but I want you to struggle with this as God's people have done down through history. You struggle with it. I'm not going to tell you the answer. Yes, I don't know it fully. I've struggled with it too. I lean toward what we call Calvinism. I lean toward the security of the believer. But these warnings of Hebrews cause me to pause from time to time. And I trust that they will cause you to search your heart. Now, let's don't worry about a doctrinal stand right now. Let's worry about searching our hearts. Have you been sinning willfully after you knew Jesus? After you knew about Jesus? Either way, that's a dangerous place to be in. I mean, if you rejected Moses' law, you were dead. You broke the commandments, you were dead. Two or three witnesses showed up. They convicted you. Do you think you're going to get away with more by coming against the Son of God who has forgiveness for you? You don't want His grace. You don't want His forgiveness. You don't want His sacrifice. You don't want His covenant. You want to go your own way. And you're going to trample all of this underfoot and say that it's just a common thing, that it doesn't matter to you. You're going to insult the Holy Ghost God says, the Lord will judge His people. That's what it says in verse 30. The Lord will judge His people. And it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. His people. His people will be judged. Now, you can go two ways with this. We've narrated down here. Now we understand that when it talks about this judgment, yes, it can be talking about His people. Alright? It is His people. His people are going to be judged if they turn away from the Savior and stay in their sin. How will they be judged? And that's where the two sides break off again. And I can't keep them together. Let them run, I guess. Are they being judged eternally? Or are they being judged with an instant death, sickness and punishment on this earth, cut off from the church and yet saved forever? You deal with that one. But it's fearful either way. Don't play the game. Don't play the theological game and lose the practical things that God wants to tell you about this. In fact, he changes the tone. And he does this in chapter 6, I think in chapter 2. He does this. He warns them severely, but then lets them know he's not really talking about them. Recall the former days, he says. Remember when you first got saved and you had so many persecutions, but you endured it anyway? Remember how people were laughing at you? Remember how you stayed with people who were getting laughed at and you didn't care? Remember that? You even took care of me and I was a prisoner. I was a prisoner. Looks again like Paul here, doesn't it? You joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods. You didn't care. You gave everything away. You knew that your riches were in heaven. Remember that. Just don't cast that away. He doesn't expect that they will. You just have needed some endurance. And the teaching is that God's people, who are truly His, will always have that endurance. They may fall. They may need a warning like this. They may mess up real good, but through the grace of God, they'll get back up again. That's what this seems to be saying, but if I were you, I would not presume upon that. I would not be so arrogant as to say you can live like you want. If that thought is going through your mind right now, I suggest that perhaps you are not one of the children of God, because the children of God do not enjoy hurting their father. They just don't enjoy it. They do hurt Him. But they're so sad about it and they want to change. If the thought in your mind is, gee, I wonder how much I can get away with and still be called a Christian. How many times I can fall back into my vomit and still come back. If that's your thought, I suggest you get prayed for and let Jesus save you. You just have some need of endurance. That's all. Verse 36. Because you want to receive the promise. For yet a little while, he who is coming will come and will not tarry. And those who are righteous will live by faith. Faith. And he opens up a whole subject here. The righteous people will live by faith. But what is faith? We'll talk about that in a minute. But for sure, we're not those who go back to our loss, to our destruction. We're the people who have faith. And that faith causes us to do some things. Chapter 11 is going to talk about that. But we need to get some questions in first. Where is our one high priest? He's in heaven. Why wouldn't Jesus be a priest if his ministry were on earth? Well, there were priests already around, the Jewish ones, who offered these shadows, and he would not be doing that. How is the Old Covenant different from the New? The law is in our hearts now, and in our minds. Number 38, what was inside the first part of the tabernacle? A lampstand, a table, and a showbread. And in the second? The altar and the ark. Number 40, what was the Spirit saying by commanding the high priest to go to the Holy of Holies only once a year? He was saying that the way was not yet readily accessible. 41, how effective is Jewish sacrifice on the conscience? It can't perfect it. 42, how is our tabernacle greater? It's not made with human hands. Number 43, how often does Jesus offer His blood in the true tabernacle? Only once. Once for all. 44. What is the essential ingredient of a testament? The death of the testator. 45. What follows if the Old Testament sacrifices could have made the people perfect? Well, they wouldn't need to keep offering them. 46. Did God ever look to animal sacrifice as satisfying Him? No. 47. Is any offering for sin being offered today? No. 48. What should be happening in the frequent assembling of believers where we should be stirring each other up and exhorting each other? 49. What happens to those who reject Christ's sacrifice? Judgment. And there is no other sacrifice. 50. What advice to those considering drawing back? Well, look at the former days. 51. Can the truly born again totally lose their salvation? It says here, we are not of those who draw back. I'm going to leave that as my conclusion, but I understand those who understand it differently. But I really believe that with all the evidence together, we are not of those who draw back. If there are those who draw back, they are not of us. You got that? By our nature in Christ, we are the ones who do believe. So let's discuss that believing. Chapter 11 is the great faith chapter, and you've probably heard it many times, and if you haven't, I'm still going to let you read it alone because I can see that we're not going to be able to cover it totally well with our time restraints. He lists many people from the Old Testament as examples of faith, and I want you to see They all did something. Faith without works is dead. First, he describes faith as something that is so real that it's like the thing itself, but you don't really have it right now. You keep looking for it, and you're believing for it, and it's so real that you actually have it, but you don't have it physically. That's faith, the substance of something that you hope for. It's the real thing. You've got it. But it's in your heart. In your heart is something that's so real. When you think about the coming again of Jesus to you, that's just an established fact, even though it's not happened yet. Then he talks about all of our ancestors in verse 2 that did that. And then we ourselves have faith that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. So if you believe that God made the world, you already have some faith. Abel was a man of faith. He showed it by offering the best sacrifice. And we talked about that when we talked about Abel. We talked about Enoch. What did he do? He pleased God. He pleased God. And by faith, because of the faith creating works in his life, God translated it. Just took him up one day. Body and soul and spirit up into heaven. I don't know how that happens, but he did it. Verse 6, and without faith, you can't please God. You can't please Him. Verse 7, here's Noah. Here's Noah. He was warned of God. What did he do? Well, we know what he did. He built an ark and, in the process, condemned the whole world. He wasn't trying to, but he condemned the world. Abraham, you know what he did. He didn't know where he was going, but God said, Go, and so he went. He obeyed. He's a believer who obeyed. These two things always go together. He goes to a foreign country. lives with strangers, and waits for the city of God. All of that by faith. God told him it was true, and so he said, well, it must be true. Verse 11, Sarah had faith also that she would have a child. Now, she laughed and did this, but finally it came to the point where she too believed. She believed. And so here came, through that faith, a child. Him as good as dead, because God said he was going to kill Isaac. But he didn't. So here was one child, finally, after a hundred years, And through that faith of these people, God has done everything else He's going to do. It's just an incredible thing, the faith of Abraham. But all these people died, verse 13, in their faith, and they hadn't received it physically. They'd received it in their heart by faith. That's what faith is. But they just really believed that it was coming. They embraced these promises. They said, this is us. This is who I am. This is what I live for. This is where I'm going. As far as this present earth, it doesn't mean anything to me. They were strangers. They were pilgrims. They were looking for a country, but they hadn't physically found it yet. Not really. It was that heavenly country that they really were looking for, even though they didn't totally understand all of that. Because they set their heart on God, God was just pleased to call them His own. Abraham again in verse 17. Faith. By faith, he offers up Isaac. You know the story. And he received him back from the dead in a figurative sense. Verse 20, it was Isaac then, after he's about to die, says he blesses Jacob, blesses Esau about the things that are to come. Jacob does the same thing when he's about to die. Joseph does the same thing when he's about to die. All these men looked ahead and said, I know that we're in the right train here. I know that God's going to do this and do this and do this." And they just kept believing it, even though they couldn't see it. That's why they're the elders. That's why they are our faith leaders. Moses comes along. He's hidden three months. His parents had faith that they were doing the right thing. They weren't afraid of what the king said. They were afraid of disobeying God. They kept all their children. Moses When he grew up, he saw some things. He felt some things in his heart. He just knew, these are my people out here being persecuted. I want to be with them because they're with God somehow. And by faith, he took the right side. Then by faith, he forsook Egypt. By faith, he kept the Passover. By faith, the Red Sea, and so on. Faith just dominates the Old Testament when you begin looking at it this way. You don't always hear the word faith back there, but you see them doing things. When you see them doing things because God said to do it, that's faith that was operating in them. Now, Jericho comes along in verse 30. We know that's about Joshua. Joshua had faith. Rahab had faith in the God of Israel. Hid the spies. And then he just runs out of time, as I'm going to do fairly soon. Gideon. Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, all the prophets. And then he lists all the things that they did. They subdued kingdoms. You know, Joshua did that. They worked righteousness. Samuel did that. They obtained promises. David did that. They stopped the mouths of lions. Daniel did that. They quenched the violence of fire. The three Hebrew children did that. Escaped the edge of the sword out and he lists all these different things out of weakness were made strong Samson remember Became valiant in battle that was Barack and a bunch of others women received their dead back to life again the Shula might Some of them did not accept deliverance. Some of them were imprisoned like Joseph in verse 36. They were stoned like Naboth. They were sawn in two like Isaiah. They were tempted. They were slain. They wandered about in sheepskins like Elijah. They were in the dens and caves of the earth like David. And they all died in faith and still didn't receive the promise because God was waiting for us. that they would not be made perfect apart from us. We're all going to be made perfect in that day when Jesus comes and we're changed in the moment. We'll all come together as the perfect body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true kingdom under the true King. And don't you miss it. Now, since we're surrounded, verse 1 of chapter 12, by this great cloud of witnesses, and you know, verse 1 there is just connected to chapter 11. You can't separate those two. the witnesses. Whether they can actually see us is not the point. He says, I've given you testimony here. Now, just imagine you're in court and these guys have all testified. God is real. God's going to do something. God can be trusted. These are the testimonies of men who lived and died in faith. And he says, because you've got all these people around you testifying to the truth, You need to run the same race that they did. You need to ignore all this worldly thing. You need to put away the foolish, stupid things you keep doing. Just quit doing this. Let it go. Let it go. And start running with patience. Day at a time. Step at a time. Step by step. Following Jesus. Looking to Him. Because He's the one that started everything and He's the one that's going to end everything when He comes. Follow Jesus. Consider this wonderful Jesus. Consider him in verse 3. He suffered. You haven't suffered, not compared to him. You haven't resisted to blood. Now, he's talking about these Jewish believers, and I'm sure since then, and we know many since then and even today are resisting even unto blood. But he's talking to a bunch of people who haven't really done a whole lot for the Lord at all, evidently, because he has to keep warning them. They're playing with the world, evidently. You haven't resisted to blood. And also, you've forgotten, you people that are suffering just a little bit and hurting just a little bit, you forget. You pouting people, you discourage people. You need to realize God loves you when He punishes you. If you're going through His scourging, and you did something bad and He's punishing you, well, thank the Lord for it. You've got people around you, perhaps elders that have disciplined you. You elders, you know the Lord did it. You need to understand that's because you're a true child. Illegitimate children don't get dealt with this way, nobody cares about them, you know. Your human fathers corrected you, you know. If they corrected you, why can't God, the Heavenly Father, correct you? It doesn't seem too pleasant right now. It doesn't seem too pleasant, whatever you're going through. But oh, it will be. Joy is going to come in the morning. So make your hands strong, verse 12. And you people that are walking around crooked, because your knees are all weak and limp and retarded, you need to get healed. Make straight paths for your feet. You keep walking around in these circles, your legs are just going to get worse. You want it to be healed, so walk in that straight line and let the Lord heal you as you go along. Then you get some other practical things here, verse 14. Start making peace with people. Evidently they had some fights going on there. Pursue holiness, too. If you don't have holiness, the brother says, you're not going to see the Lord. Blessed are the pure in heart, it says, for they shall see God. That's where he got it from. So if you're not pure in heart, do you think you're going to see God? No. No. Again I say, no. Verse 15. Looking diligently, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. Watch out for those roots. of bitterness. Where does that come from? Deuteronomy chapter 21, excuse me, chapter 29, Deuteronomy 29, 18. I'm going back there. You don't have to. There it is. That there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away from God to serve other gods. And that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood. So it may not happen when he hears the words of this curse that he blesses himself in his heart and says, I shall have peace even though I walk in the imagination of my heart. Somewhere in there, either in the idolatry or in the guy that has the imaginations in his own heart is the root of bitterness. And it's a person. It's a person. He says, I don't want any of you to fall short and we don't want any of you to spring up and cause trouble for the others. There are some of you who are roots. It's not talking about having roots of bitterness. We get into all kinds of psychological sidetracks when we go with that. Some of you are roots of bitterness. You're bitter roots. You're poison. There's poison there in the church. We don't want those kind of people rising up. Because these are the ones who have fallen short of the grace of God. Maybe they never had the grace of God on them to begin with, but they're calling themselves Christians. This is how many can be defiled in a church. You notice how somebody comes into the group? Looks like a nice guy. You accept him. You fellowship with him. And then you find out that he's a bitter root. He's poisoning the group. And you've got to get him out of there soon. Somehow. Profane people. That's what he goes on to talk about is people. Fornicators. Profane persons like Esau. We don't want them in the church. Oh, we want them to be saved, but they need to be called to repentance. when they're in the church. And then he tells why this is all so serious. You didn't come to a mountain that can be touched and burned with fire, not an ordinary mountain like Mount Sinai. You didn't come to the sound of a trumpet and the voice of ordinary human beings and physical things. No, no, no. Oh, it was a horrible sight. It was such a fearful thing to come there. But you haven't come there. You've come to something even more terrifying. Mount Zion, verse 22. The living God Himself. The heavenly Jerusalem itself. All the saints and angels. The assembly of the church. Jesus Himself. The Holy Spirit. I mean, That's awesome. That's what you've come to now. That's how you're going to be judged now. Don't refuse him who's speaking to you. They refused the one that spoke on earth, but this one is speaking from heaven. He shook the earth, but this same one is going to shake the heavens. Everything is shaken. Everything that's ever been made, including demon spirits, it's all going to be shaken. It's all going to be shaken. What's left will be what is of God. Be careful. Our God is a consuming fire. He'll burn you up. He'll chew you up and spit you out. You need to be careful about your salvation today. I'm giving you the warnings of Hebrews. There are many of them. Don't get involved in theological bickering over this. Get involved in internal searching. Chapter 13, keep loving each other. And don't forget, when somebody shows up at your door, it might be an angel. Let them come in if they need help. Help them. Remember people that are in prison. Just because you're not doesn't mean you're all free. Be bound with them. Put chains around you just like they do. Pray and fast and suffer with them. Let yourself feel what they're feeling so you can pray with them. Pray for them. Verse 4 is a knockout punch to the whole celibacy. of the Roman Catholic priesthood. We're not against celibacy, because God does call a few to do that. Thank God he does, and it's a wonderful thing. But marriage is an honorable thing for everybody. Roman Catholic priest, if you're listening to this, marriage is honorable for you. It's not a scandal after all. Somebody lied to you. The truth is, marriage is honorable among all. and the bed is undefiled. There's nothing unclean or nasty about the bed if you are married to that woman. If you're not, if you're a fornicator and an adulterer, and that's what celibates who are not called celibates will finally end up doing, God's going to judge those people. So you need to get out of that system and you need to get married and let the normal flow of life continue with you. Don't be covetous either, verse 5. Be happy with what you've got. God's going to take care of you. So we can say, God's my helper. God gives me what I need. Also, verse 7, if you've got somebody over you in the Lord, remember them. Pray for them. Obey them. And the Bible uses the word rule here in the King James. New King James. Rule over you. The word in the Greek is lead. It's not arco, to reign over you. Not to be church leaders that reign over you. Not that kind of rulership, please. But you do have leaders. You do have people who are going to be giving an account of your souls in verse 17. It says it again. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive. Those who are your leaders in the Lord. Your elders. Follow them. Submit them. They are watching for you. They are praying for you. And they are giving an account. They're giving an account of you. And when the Lord hears their account, He listens to it. Because these are holy people. If they're ahead of you, they're holier than you. Let them give their account with joy and not grief. He uses the same word, rule, again in verse 24. Greet all those who rule over you. So He must believe that there are people who are over you in the Lord. But we hope that in your church it's not just one person. One person that rules over the whole bunch. rather, several elders with differing gifts for differing situations. Remember verse 8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever, so don't be carried about with all these strange doctrines that are coming in. He's not changing His rules. He's not changing Himself. Let your heart be established by grace. Not by foods. Not by the things that the Jewish law told you to do all that time. No, no. We have an altar. They don't have any right to be a part of our altar. We have two separate altars now. They've got their altar of flesh, but they're still carrying out their sacrifices because they still think that they're supposed to do that. But we've got an altar too. Our altar, I believe, is the cross of Christ. Our altar is where we can participate in His sacrifice by faith. And they can't do this. Jesus died for us. I go to Him in prayer, and I bow down, and I offer myself to Him, and I love Him, and He loves me. And we create an altar situation. I lay down on that altar like he laid on it. As Paul said, we are crucified with Christ. That's the altar that's being talked about here. And I'll talk to you about another sacrifice here in just a minute. I think this is the one. Okay. The bodies of those beasts, he talks about how they were burned outside the camp and then he compares how Jesus was crucified outside the camp. And he says if you want to be with Jesus, you go outside the camp too. He's still showing us that those Old Testament sacrifices are pictures. Here, verse 14, we don't have a continuing city. But there is one coming. He's already covered that in chapter 11. So let's offer the sacrifices of praise to God. There's your altar. There's your altar. You offer on your altar the sacrifice of praise. And another one in verse 16. Do good things. Share with other people. God likes those sacrifices too. And so our sacrifice comes out of our mouth and out of our hands as God shows us how to bless Him and other people. And then verse 17, Obey them that rule over you. Verse 18, Pray for us. We have a good conscience, but pray for us and pray for me. that I can be restored to you. He seems to be still in jail. Maybe this is Paul, maybe not. And the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep. Now that sounds like something Peter might say. Through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you complete. And I appeal to you brothers, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Some have called this a letter. Some say, no, it's not addressed to anyone. It must be an essay. Whoever wrote this says, no, it's a word of exhortation. It's got all this deep Hebraic theology in it, but it's a word of exhortation. It is a warning from beginning to end. We've got something better, so the responsibilities are greater. Come on. Come to Christ. Don't turn away from Him. Don't fall away. Stay with Him. It's an exhortation. So whenever you exhort someone, pick up something out of the book of Hebrews. It'll fit. It'll work. So, that sounds like Paul, doesn't it? He says, I have written to you in few words. Now, to him, Paul, this would be just a few words. To us, it's a sure mouthful. Verse 23, Brother Timothy's been set free and I'm going to be with him when I come. That sounds like Paul, doesn't it? Greet all those that rule over you and all the saints and those from Italy, verse 24, greet you. Italy, Rome, imprisonment, Paul, That sounds like him too, but we still don't know for sure. And let's leave it there. Let's go to the last of the questions. Number 52. What kind of faith is Hebrews 11 discussing? It's talking about saving faith. Number 53. Who are the elders of 11 to? The men of old that are listed in this chapter. 54. Who gives the faithful one his testimony? God. 55, the two requirements for pleasing God, that He is, you must believe He is, and that He is a rewarder, that He's really going to answer your prayers. Number 56, what three things did Abraham and Sarah do to show that they believed? Well, they left Ur, they bore a child, they offered that child. 57, what did the patriarchs do as they were dying? They blessed their sons and they prophesied. 58. How does Moses' life illustrate that faith not only does, but sees? Well, Moses had his eyes on the reward, not on his present situation. 59. Why doesn't the writer tell of the other Old Testament heroes? Well, he doesn't have enough time. Number 60. Can you think of people to go with the events listed in 1133-38? Well, I told you these. David's subdued kingdoms, Daniel stopped Lion, Shadrach, etc. in the fire. David waxed valiant in flight. Elisha raised women from the dead, raised his son from the dead. Chains, that's Jeremiah. Naboth was stoned. Isaiah was sawn asunder and so on. What witnesses surround us in the race, those who have gone before, and especially Jesus? 63. What is one thing we can expect if we are truly to be sons of God? That's chastening or punishment for our sin. Not to bear the guilt of them, but to be corrected for them. Number 64. What's something we must have if we are to see the Lord? That's holiness. 65. What are two things against which we must be on guard? Falling short of grace, the root of bitterness, on the inside, evil person on the outside. 66. Compare Mount Sinai to Mount Zion. Sinai was able to be touched, fire. You couldn't touch it legally, but it was able to be touched. Zion was a heavenly thing. It was the church, it was God himself, Jesus' blood. 67. When the final shaking comes, only what will remain? Well, the things that are unshakable, the kingdom of Christ. 68, what might happen if you ministered to a stranger? You might entertain an angel. 69, how should we remember suffering brothers? As though you were suffering. 70, what promise keeps us from coveting? I will never leave you. 71, where is our altar? What is offered on it? Jesus and Calvary are our altar. We offer a sacrifice of praise and good works. 72, what do our leaders do for us? They speak the word, they live the life, they watch for our souls, and they give an account. 73, what's happened to Timothy? He's been set free. And where is the writer, perhaps? He's in Italy for sure, perhaps in Rome. There you have Lesson 48, the Book of Hebrews. Lesson 49, next time, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 2 Timothy, and Jude. God bless you today. It's been good to share this exhortation with you. I trust that you have been encouraged and warned to take this thing seriously. Amen.