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173.
173.
4 Little while, my Lord, shall come, and we shall.
Want nervous to hear all the.
Godfather, yes.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Who may not have been here this morning. We were reading in Hebrews chapter 10.
And we started with verse 19.
And didn't get very far.
But that's all right.
Verse 24. Would that be about right?
Yes.
Hebrews 10, verse 24.
OK.
Hebrews 10 and start with verse 24.
Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He had despised Moses law, died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he is sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done death by under the spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while she became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
00:10:11
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while. And he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the Judge shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition.
But of them that believed the saving of the soul.
3 aspects of the Christian life or what characterizes Christianity here brought together.
We have faith mentioned in verse 22. We have lovement, or rather hope mentioned in verse 23 if we translate the verse properly. And now we have love.
And it shows us, doesn't it, that when there is new life, when there is that which connects us with Christ, there ought to be the manifestation of it in our lives? And if we could use the term.
It's contagious, and so the exhortation here is to consider one another.
To provoke unto love and to good works.
I don't know if it happens out here in the West, but I sometimes hear it back home.
There isn't enough love among us. I don't see enough love.
Well, that may be true, and it's sad when it happens.
What we need to remind ourselves of is, as a brother once made the remark, in our written ministry, Christianity is not characterized by what it finds, but rather by what it brings.
Is there not enough love? Then let me be exercised to show some.
And I'll find, I believe if I do that, that it will be contagious. And so there's an exhortation here to provoke unto love and to good works. It starts with you and with me. I say that because we Live Today, if we could say it in what Satan has made a world of takers. That's what the world has become, a self-centered place where people say I need this.
And I need that. And that kind of atmosphere, if we're not careful, can creep into our Christianity. But.
True Christianity looks outside of myself first of all for the Lord's glory, and then looks for the good and blessing of others, and looks for an opportunity to show love rather than receive it.
So the lettuce here is practical sanctification, isn't it? And we've mentioned how the first, uh, uh, first 9 1/2 Chapters were really coming up to this point. They laid the foundation, which we spoke about this morning, of positional or absolute sanctification. Now there's the reflex response of that new nature and that new standing and that new object. And that's practical sanctification, isn't it? It reminds me of.
Of the Passover, Remember when there was the Passover, immediately afterwards there was a Feast of Unleavened Bread? Well, the Passover speaks of absolute sanctification, doesn't it? As well as much more. The Feast of Unleavened Bread speaks of the necessity of a life consistent with our new standing. And so it corresponds with practical sanctification, doesn't it? And also, as we spoke about somewhat this morning, to bring the thought a little bit further.
00:15:08
A priest in Israel had to be a member of Aaron's family. In that sense. He was outwardly sanctified or provisionally sanctified as we spoke this morning. Then he had to be consecrated and we spoke about that. That was a one time thing which included blood and cleansing all over his body, completely washed. That's that's what we called positional sanctification and we had that in the last half of verse 22.
But then in their duties they had to wash their hands and their feet. And that's critical, isn't it? Again, we spoke this morning about the importance of exercising priesthood. But as Bruce brought out at the end, it's not just that every man thing is that we have to be clean, be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. And so there needs to be that communion and that exercise in our individual lives and that's.
Practical sanctification. Now this isn't legality. Some people say, oh, you're just legal. No, it's not legality. Rather it's the proper response of my new standing before God, the proper response of the new life that I have, the proper response of what the Spirit of God who indwells me leads me to. The proper response of me having the right object in Christ. And so it's consistent with my new standing.
Before God, is it not? That's practical sanctification. Legality is what there was in the Old Testament, where it was imposed on them.
To see if there would be an inward response. And we know the answer was there was not an inward response because man is lost as well as guilty. But it's just the opposite in Christianity. It's, uh, the inward reality showing forth appropriate fruit.
And that's the let us as we have in this chapter.
Deuce Prue Kenny, He can bear fruit, but he cannot produce fruit.
If my energy is producing fruit, I'm going to be occupied with my production. If the Spirit of God is allowing me to bear fruit, it's because I'm occupied with the Lord and his glory and he's the one reflected in my life. And so I'm not looking in the mirror at my good works. I just act because that's the life that I have and that's the power that I have and is being carried out. And I'm enjoying the Lord and, you know, enjoying sharing the gospel. You don't go home and say, I, I preach to four people today. You know, you just thank you Lord, for allowing me to speak of you. You know, it's just that inward life that's manifested outwardly. And, and if that is what's happening.
It you're never gonna take any credit for that when it's human energy. Well, we compare ourselves to others either. We're either self satisfied that we get discouraged because we're not living up to what we're supposed to be. But if we're occupied with the Lord, you know, an apple tree gives apples. It doesn't. It just gives apples because it's an apple tree. And so we are in the family of God. We have the life of Christ in US. And if it's active, it's gonna produce the qualities and the virtues of Christ. The truth of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, all these beautiful things produced in the life of a believer.
And if the life is inside, it's going to show up outside. And we could say that collectively, can't we? If we are enjoying collectively the Lord people coming into our meetings, they're going to feel that the Lord is there, there, there there's love and there, there there's affection in there. And there's things that are drawing us. You know, somebody comes into our meeting and we kind of all turn around.
Who's that? You know that's not going to make them feel comfortable.
My brother went into a meeting 1 Lord's day. He was in fellowship and.
Probably came to him after.
And he said, who are you?
I don't think the Lord would ask you like that. Who are you? Hi, brother. I've never met you and I'm glad to see you and make him feel welcome, you know?
So I just mentioned this because we have good work, we have love there, and it's really the energy of the Spirit of God in US. And like that we have that produces that in our life. And you and I are the ones that are burying it. But it's God's power and energy and there's no credit to be taken for that, is there?
And, and if it was developed, I'm sorry that I missed it, but, uh, we have verses 19 and 20 and then between that we, uh, between, uh, 22/23/24 and 25, we have verse 21. And it speaks to the fact that we have a great high priest or a great priest over the House of God. I don't know that anybody developed that thought as.
00:20:25
It seems very pivotal in connection with what we have after we recognize we have boldness to go in before the Father and so so maybe somebody could develop that for us. Verse 21.
Well, I agree, we did. We did skim over it a little bit.
Brother Ed But yes, it's good to mention it sometimes. Hard to know what to emphasize in a chapter when we don't have as much time as we'd like. But the high priesthood of Christ is important, isn't it? In the Old Testament there was a high priest, and then there were other priests who were, if we could say it, ordinary priests who came between the.
Mass of the common people and God, and in that sense they were responsible for mediating between God and the people. But now we know there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so the high priestly service of Christ is still after the character of Aaron, but it's in the sense of being there to keep us from sinning.
Because he's there for us to go to with our infirmities.
There are things that hinder us, aren't there? There are difficulties and problems that come to us in this life, and we get it back in the 4th chapter of Hebrews. Let us therefore well, we might read it just to get it accurately.
Hebrews, chapter 4.
And verse 14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are.
Yeah, without sin. And here's the verse. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So recognizing that we have that great high priest, we avail ourselves of him in order that we might be kept from that what Scripture calls the sin which does so easily beset us, and in order that there might be that holy character.
And that proper priestly position, or not position, but priestly character to come into the presence of the Lord as Bruce was bringing out at the end of the last reading meeting. So it's very important to remember that. And thank you, Ed, for drawing that to our attention.
We have, uh, Aaron's rod that budded and it was a dead thing, came to life and, uh, it blossomed and then it produced fruit. And it's an indication that that the believer has no power or strength or can produce any fruit for the glory of God outside the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus as the great high priest. And so I, I think too, it's pivotal here.
In so much as connection with is asking us to do something and telling us that we have the power to do it because we have one interceding for us. So I just was thinking of that as a typical example of it.
Who have an entrance into the holiest by blood of Jesus, By the blood of Jesus, Then let us approach.
00:25:02
With a full heart. But there's two things that come in between the if and the then, and that touches on two of these particular works of Christ that we see that are characteristic of our day.
He accomplished the work of redemption. Verse 20. We come in by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way which He is dedicated for us through the veil that is His flesh, His work.
And we have a great priest over the House of God. So there's his work for us now in one aspect, his high priestly work. Now we know from other scriptures that he has the work of advocacy relative to our sin, but relative to infirmity and, and the needs that we feel here below, we have the high priestly work of Christ. And I was thinking of how Bruce had mentioned the doctrinal section up to 10/18.
And the writer leads us up to certain points and then he gives us a summary. This is often the way in scripture. And I was thinking about where he's talking about the priest. He talks about the Aaronic priesthood. He talks about the Melchizedek priesthood, the whole thought of priesthood. He brings us to a summary in chapter 8 and verse one. He says, now a summary of the things of which we are speaking is now here, I think is what we that we see the emphasis.
The summary is this priesthood, this priest that I've been describing to you, we have one. We have such a high priest.
His name is Jesus.
And then he goes on from this point. After he summarizes, he then talks about the place where that sacrifice was accomplished. And so we have both the priest and we have the place here, place here we have the priest who is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's accomplished the work, and now he's entered into that place for us.
And we have that place to which we can enter with boldness into His very presence.
What a remarkable work that is.
Bill Testament. The priest never sat down, did they?
But he sat down at the right hand of God. He has these in tight. These precious stones attached before his heart He has the name of.
Played in on His forehead. Holiness onto the Lord. And that's who we have as a great eyed priest, One who loves us perfectly, each one individually, the one who sustains us by his power individually also, and the one that presents everything to God on our behalf in His perfect holiness.
Between standing and sitting, the priest is a real image that helps us to understand Hebrews, both the old system and the new system. The fact that those priests always stood is an image of the incompleteness of the work and the fact that the Lord Jesus sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God.
Is an image of the final completion of that work. Every believer can say.
That my Savior will never have to stand again to complete that work.
So then the emphasis is, is since we know what the Lord Jesus has done for us and what he is for us as a high priest, it's the emphasis, knowing those things that should encourage our hearts to go forward. And so if that's where he says, let us draw, now we have knowing this tremendous truth that is for us, let us go forward.
It really is the expression of Christian liberty, isn't it, as distinct from Jewish *******?
Let us draw near, let us hold fast, let us love one another to revoke the love and the good works. There's no thou shalt there. It's the response of Christian liberty to do the very things that we would desire to do. And I think it's important to notice, not only is there that looking upon one another to encourage, and perhaps the greatest encouragement is not an exhortation that someone gives me, but rather their example. We've been provoked to love and good works by what we've witnessed in the last day or two, haven't we?
But there's something else further. This is not forsaking the assignment of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.
Or as the custom is.
Like to contrast that with the verse in Luke chapter 4.
00:30:05
In reference to our blessed Lord.
We find at the beginning of Luke chapter 4 that he was full of the Holy Ghost and he was led by the Spirit.
But then it says in verse 16, And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
Well, I say this because sometimes we shy away from that word customer habit, as if it is simply, umm, a legal thing. It's just a matter of routine and habit without any response from the heart. What we find, first of all, the Lord Jesus in this chapter is one who is full of the Holy Ghost. His every movement was moved and LED of the Spirit of God. And so we find that that's what marks him. But we find that he had a custom, He had a habit.
And it was where he had been brought up.
He had not known anything else but going to the synagogue, and so consistent with that, he went up to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. So he just saved that to show the blessed Lord himself did have custom. And there are important things. You may shy away from the word, but how important it is, indeed how critical it is that we establish good patterns, good habits in our life. But now we find in Hebrews, if we don't establish those necessary wholesome patterns, we find there are those that have developed another custom. And what was their custom?
Their custom and their habit was to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It says as the custom is with some, not with all. Now it's helped too, by a remark my brother made some years ago that in Hebrews what we find is harmful to the believer is fatal to the mere professor. And so these things are here for our encouragement in ways that we might be preserved in the wilderness, to not only consider one another, but.
To consider likewise ourselves.
Well, that's very good, Bill. And I think we need to see that here, that in its perhaps real interpretation.
This forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
In the sense in which it's used in Hebrews is a very solemn warning to those who were not real, because that is what would eventually characterize them. It's like the plant that was.
Or the seed that fell on Stony ground and it sprung up seemed to be doing OK. But then as time went on, and as the Lord says, when affliction or persecution arise, for the word's sake.
They become offended and fall off. No real life. And so it's a solemn thing when that's mentioned. But I like that term that you gave us. It's fatal to the unbeliever because it's an indication of a position that is not real. It's an outward position, but no inward reality.
And that's why I believe it goes on to say in verse 26, For if we sin willfully, that is in its essence it's referring to an unbeliever. But the Lord many times in his word gives us something which in its ultimate interpretation refers to an unbeliever, but which is written for warnings for you and me too. And so here we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
We are to be found more and more, as it says, exhorting one another as we see the day approaching.
One more little comment.
The day here, I believe, is the day of judgment. I have no objection to those who.
Want to refer to it as the Lord's coming for us, as we had in the hymn we sung at the beginning. But there really are no definite signs for the Lord's coming for us, are there?
But for coming judgment, yes, there are. And you and I can see them today. And if we see them.
We know that the Lord's coming is even closer than that, but we are entitled to see in the world around us that which shows us the signs of coming or that which shows us that coming judgment is near. And so we're to redouble our efforts, to exhort one another, to redouble our efforts to be together as we are on this occasion, very, very important.
00:35:37
Hebrews has five parenthetical warnings. Uh, this is the 4th. The first one is in chapter 2, The danger of neglect.
The second is in chapter three and four, the danger of unbelief. The third is in chapters end of five and six, the danger of not maturing or growing as a Christian. And then here we have the danger of drawing back. And I agree wholeheartedly with you, Bill, when it says just to skip ahead a little for the sake of time here, but there is a danger of apostasy, of course. That's the point here.
Some who had professed Christianity, and we're going to give it up and go back to the Judaizing system. But at the same time, we can follow that pathway as believers, can't we? But not get to the end. We have the same thing in the end of James, don't we?
A man who's converted from the error of his ways. It's a believer. He doesn't get to the logical end, but nonetheless he lives as a person that does. And so there's a spirit of apostasy as well as the reality of apostasy.
There's a danger of us as believers drawing back from the entrusted deposit the Lord has given to us. Whereas in the full extent, this parenthesis, beginning with verse 26, running to the end of the chapter, does speak about an apostate, one who really is not a believer at all. That's the real warning. But at the same time it speaks to us of the danger of drawing back.
That's why it says uh.
In verse 38, I believe now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. It's any man which would include those of us that are believers that are have that danger of drawing back from the privileges the Lord has entrusted to us.
Example given in the Old Testament of the Book of Numbers of a man who picked up some sticks on the Sabbath day.
And they found him doing that and they brought it to Moses. And Moses asked the Lord what to do. You know, many sacrifices were available in the Old Testament for sin. And they could offer a lamb or offer different sacrifices. And, and he, he was, he was stoned.
Died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. What did he do? He he picked up some sticks, maybe to cook his eggs in the morning. You know, he didn't kill anybody. He didn't take somebody else's wife. He just willfully went ahead.
And did his own will and he was stoned to that.
Now he's comparing that with the sin.
Committed here by trotting on their foot the Son of God, and is steaming the blood of the covenant as an unclean thing.
And insulting the spirit of grace.
How can we compare that, You know, picking up sticks And he was, he was.
He was stoned. How much more serious?
To this fight to seem as nothing.
The Son of God and his work, and the Spirit of God striving with your soul and mine.
It says here if we sin willfully and sin by definition is when I choose my will over what God says in the garden. The Lord said you can't eat of this tree. They had everything, everything was perfect, everything was beautiful. And Satan came and lied to Eve and they turned around and they said, no, we know better than God that fruit is gonna be good for us. And so they ate it. And when they ate it, they lost the blessing. And dear ones, today God wants to bless us. Obedience leads to blessing. That's not legalism.
He wants to bless us and he says here is the line.
00:40:01
This is what you need to do. This is what is gonna be good for you. And when we say, no, I know better than you, this is gonna be good for me. And we go and we break that, we lose the blessing. And you see that? Like, for example, you see that in marriage, the Lord says that we're supposed to keep ourselves for our spouse. That's because He knows the ultimate joy and ultimate blessing. His intimacy in marriage with one partner for life. It's not found in something else. This world tries to sell us all this stuff.
Don't buy it. That's not what God has for us. He has the ultimate blessing in store for us, in mind for us. And we'll get that if we'll obey. Not in a sense of, you know, I have to do this. I have to do this. Like our brother said yesterday, it has to be out of a heart of affection for Christ, the desire to please him, to want that blessing. Lord, I want what you want for me. As for God, His way is perfect. He wants to bless us the very best.
No, of course that a believer can sin willfully.
And we don't need to remind ourselves in this company, although it's important perhaps to say it, that there is no question but that a believer can never lose his salvation. We do sometimes sin willfully. But what we I get, I believe, get here is, as we've already seen, first of all, a warning to one who was drawing back how serious to be as Brother Eric was bringing before us.
Provisionally sanctified by the blood of Christ in the position where the truth was being ministered. That's why it says here the knowledge of the truth. There was a knowledge of the truth, and yet deliberately and willfully to turn away from it and knowing that it was the truth.
But it does have a warning for you and for me if I willfully do that which I know is contrary to the Word of God.
Is it not a serious thing for me as a believer? Yes, it is. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Pardon the reference but it went to my soul and this of course has to be many, many years ago now, but I can remember our late brother Harry Hayhoe in an address saying.
Brethren, do you think someday the judgment seat of Christ, that the Lord will say to me, Hey ho, you were far too careful to obey my word. You should have sidestepped it a little bit here and there and.
You could have been far more useful to me and done far more work and saved far more souls and ministered to far more people if you hadn't been so careful to follow the Scripture, he said. Do you think that's what will happen at the judgment seat of Christ? Well, he didn't need to answer the question. To ask the question was to answer it. And so we need to remember that because it's a difficult day for you and me in the world of today, just as it was.
For these Hebrew believers in their day, tremendous opposition, tremendous pressure to conform to what everyone was doing around them. And yes, you can have your Christianity, but water it down a bit and import things from Judaism. And of course, ultimately, if you can turn back to Judaism, that's what's important. Well, they had received the knowledge of the truth.
And so there was a solemn warning to the unbeliever.
But there is a real warning for you and me too. Have we known the truth of God? Have we known what it is to have the word of God open? Than it is a serious thing, deliberately and willfully to do that which is contrary to the word of God.
The Hebrew believers had a special danger that we do not have, and specifically they had the possibility of going back to the offerings that were offered under the law that they grew up with.
And so often in life the consequences exceed what we ever could have imagined. And so for them to do so that there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. To go back to the old order was to to trot under foot the Son of God. It is to demean his sacrifices nothing. And his blood is nothing, because they've taken up with what they had once left. And there was no more sacrifice for sins. There's no nothing else available. God has nothing else besides the death of his beloved Son.
00:45:22
But you go back to verse 17. We've often noticed this, but it's a good contrast or rather verse 18. Now where a mission of sins is there is no more offering for sin, a very similar expression, no more offering for sin or no more sacrifice for sin. But though that is much greater here, it is not that there's no other sacrifice available, but rather there is none other necessary because God is 1 Sacrifice is the work of Christ. And when one sends remitted, there is no more offering for sin because the work is complete. And we rest on this as we sang in the hymn tis finished here our souls have rest. These believers were taking up.
The professing believers with the danger was to take up with what they had left. And just one other comment too. I think it's a challenge for us whenever we take up the Book of Hebrews. We were not raised under the law. We were not raised in Judaism.
But to have a little bit of help and understanding the book, we do need to read the book of Leviticus in Exodus, especially to have some sense of what these these types of these images are. I just say that in a practical way because in order for us to benefit more fully from a portion, sometimes we have to do a little homework in that regard. And so he's writing a Jewish company of believers. And to them some of these expressions that are not necessarily real familiar to us, to them.
They would have much greater under.
Great privilege results and great responsibility, doesn't it? I've often said that privilege and responsibility are flip sides of the same coin. The higher the privilege, the greater the responsibility. And so in continuing here verse 30 and 31. We know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The cross of Christ, I've often said, is the greatest event in the annals of eternity. To despise that and how God revealed himself in the cross of Christ is to to trample that under foot is to be hopeless, isn't it? And that's what we have here.
And perhaps the most, if we could use the expression, the most solemn thing about rejecting the sacrifice of Christ.
It's not merely rejecting truth as we get in verse.
26 The knowledge of the truth.
It is rejecting love and grace.
So one thing to reject truth, and that is serious enough. And in the Old Testament man had a measure of truth, which of course, sad to say, the natural man rejected. But now we have one who came not merely in truth, but in grace and truth, and to reject grace and to reject love as.
We might say, if God has not won the heart of man, if God has not won your heart and mind, what more could He do to win it? There is no more sacrifice because God has given the very best that He possibly could. And there could be no more display, no better display of the heart of God than what He has given. And so I think you use that expression rightly.
Bill from the Darby translated translation or maybe someone else used it, but the thought is insulted. The spirit of grace. What an insult to God for man to turn his back on the love and grace that He has shown. But then for you and for me it's also an insult if I turn my back on what he has shown you and me in love and grace.
Not only for our good and blessing.
But also for the honor and glory of Christ.
00:50:05
Apple of Stalin, who was once a theology student.
And he turned his back on God and his name was not Stalin originally. That actually is a name he took it means steel. And he had a steel wool, a will after that. And he became the man who, history tells us, slaughtered some 20 million of his own countrymen. And when he died, his daughter recorded that he, the last act he did was shake his first at God. That's a solemn thing. There is such a thing as apostasy, isn't it?
It's a very real thing.
As pilot, they said crucify him, crucify him. They crucify unto themselves the Son of God. And it's a similar thing here. As they went back to Judaism, they would take sides with those that crucified the Lord. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And the living God used the Roman armies and he slew a million 100,000 of these Jews.
In the year 70 to his Roman armies. So they had no king but Caesar, and that's how Caesar treated them. But it was really the chastisement of God because they rejected his son.
Well, as we remarked earlier, it's beautiful to see in verse 32.
The Spirit of God seeks to recall those dear people back, that is, the true believers.
And hopefully to exercise even unbelievers too, to what they had had at the beginning. There had been a tremendous joy, we know on the day of Pentecost, 3000 of those dear Jewish people were saved. Few days later another 5000 were saved, and doubtless others. As time went on, it says that the work of the Lord grew and multiplied.
Many were turned to the Lord.
But they had a very difficult time and as it says here, they endured verse 32, a great fight of affliction. Now, that doesn't mean that they got into fights. That's not the problem, that's not the thought. But there was a lot of affliction that came upon them because of their swimming against the tide of the Jewish religion.
We know from what we read in the Gospels the fanaticism and the absolute rage that came about when anything was said against what God had given by Moses and all the traditions that man had added on top of it. Well, now here we find that these dear people in turning to Christ and in turning their back upon it.
They had this happen to them too.
Reproaches verse 31 afflictions and not only happening to them, but because they were the companions of others. But what did it result in? It resulted in joy.
And it will. It will result in joy.
We get that in more than one place. We get it in first Peter chapter 4, where it's joy when we fall into divers temptations and there's a joy in standing up for Christ in spite of opposition. But it's not easy. And it just went on and on and on. So that there was a real difficulty for them. I just suggest the thought too, that in our day.
We perhaps don't experience it in the same way here in North America, although there is plenty of it in other parts of the world. But what perhaps is even harder to take is what comes from, and we get this in Second Timothy chapter 3, from within the House of God. That's even more difficult. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus.
00:55:07
Shall suffer persecution that includes everything, but I believe with a particular emphasis on what comes from within the House of God. Because again, we're not pointing the finger. The tendency is right here, but among christened in Christendom today. Satan has done a good job of pulling Christianity down to the level of this world.
Of introducing that which characterized Judaism, and in an outward way that gives Christianity some respect in this world. That's why it's popular.
It's hard to take that kind of persecution. It's hard to take it when someone else who professes to be a Christian says I don't want to be around you, I don't like your version of Christianity, and so on. Again, I say we should meet those oppositions with love and with grace and with the spirit of Christ. But at the same time, it can be very difficult.
And the Spirit of God here in Hebrews recognizes that and recognizes how those Jewish believers.
At least some of them had been.
So oppressed and so pressured that they had given up some of that joy that they had at the beginning. And here there's an opportunity to look back and say, yes, those were happy days in spite of all the opposition, in spite of all the persecution, and they were to be recalled to that.
The temptation for these ones to go back. I have a note in my Bible. This is 8064 and our brother mentioned in 8070, the Romans came and leveled the city and burned the temple to the point that not one block was left upon another. They wouldn't leave this system of things and the Lord just snuffed it out. So there's no way they could go back to it. And it's a word to our own heart and our own soul. What do we have in our lives? All of us have a desire to have something that we can see that we can.
That we can see, feel, you know, that appeals to our flesh. Judaism had things for the sights and for the sounds and and all these things. And we naturally want that we serve an invisible savior. He's invisible to our eyes.
But he's just as real as you and I are, just as real as the chair we sit on.
I remember a brother saying, if you could just see in my mind the Lord Jesus is so real.
He's so real. I know him and for each one of us, as we get up in the morning and we say, Lord, what do you want me to do today? You're the boss, what do you want me to do today? He will guide us. He will lead us. We can have that communion, that relationship. That was his desire. And naturally our hearts, if we don't have that connection, then go to some form. I was just thinking as we were sitting here, there's another umm.
I guess you'd call it a practice. There's a hymn to the, uh, Father, the Holy Spirit, the Son, and they break bread. There's a form. Well, where's the spirit? Where's the liberty? Well, when we don't have the liberty E everything, we don't have the connection with the Spirit. We're afraid. So we make a form. Let's not make a form in our lives. Let's seek the Lord, the Apostle Paul, he with all his heart, that I may know him. What did the apostle Paul want? He wanted the Lord Jesus. That's the thing that satisfies our heart. There's nothing wrong with other things in our lives, but that's what's gonna satisfy our heart and our soul.
I wonder if in June 20 and 21 we get an antidote for these things.
Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
What an exhibition.
And we know the love of God by what he's revealed to us of Christ. And don't we?
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So we have to live and move in this world.
And in that sense, some of this world's goods are a necessary thing to us. We all recognize that we have to make a living, at least in the climate in which most of us live here. We have to have a roof over our heads and things like that that are necessary to this life. And the Lord recognizes all of that. But it must have been even more difficult for some of these Jewish believers who had been accustomed.
All their lives to hearing that the mark of God's favor on them was earthly blessing. The mark of God's blessing was to have things down here. But now the Spirit of God seeks to turn them towards something that can never be spoiled.
These dear believers had taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods. I don't know just how that had happened, but it is going on today where people are deprived of their property and deprived of their liberty and in every way given a very, very difficult time in this world. Well, it's not easy to take, not easy to take. We don't have that happen here in North America, at least not right now.
But it is getting more and more difficult to be a Christian here. And what does the Spirit of God seek to do here? Take our eyes up to heaven, where we have a better and an enduring substance.
Again, we need something down here by which to live. The Lord knows that your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, and the word is, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. The Lord knows how to look after His own, and He does, but how important to have our eye on those heavenly things.
And that is what?
These Hebrew believers who are recalled to and that's what the Spirit of God would recall us to as well.
So would we be right in saying I'm going back now a little bit, but this 25th verse, the reason why they for struck the assembly of ourselves together was because there was nothing there.
To attract.
Those who had made a profession but did not have new life. It would be like going to the breaking of red today. If you're not enjoying the Lord, it could be. It could be the deadest place on earth.
There's no singers, there's no choir, there's there's no music to entertain you. There's all of these things that Christendom has brought in as Judaism to attract a little bit of the flesh so that we can have something. I, I, I understand that in the early days, Christians were called atheists because they didn't have any God. They just met together and there was no idol or anything there. And so they said, well, they're, they're unbelievers.
They don't have a God. Well, that would be a a a reason why these who didn't have life but had a profession didn't want to assemble themselves because there was nothing. And the tendency was to go back to Judaism, which really in 26 verses apostasy. But there there is a tendency in us too want something that we can see and feel.
You know.
Judaism was a sensuous.
Religion, you could hear the you could hear the music, you could hear the singing, you could smell the sacrifice, you could see the priests. They were all, all of these things. The building, you know, all these things are what characterized Judaism today. You see buildings with something. This is a church. Well, the church is not a building, but it is that mixing of Judaism that man has gone back to.
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That does attract the flesh.
There is another challenge that the Hebrews had that we don't have in the same way, and that is Jews under the law. They look to earth God for earthly prosperity and bounty. If they were doing the will of God, we read Deuteronomy 28 and it's very clear that they could look for prosperity in the field, prosperity in the home, and abundance in every way. If they honored God, they would be blessed in a material way. Now we may have been taught that, but not correctly as believers, that we don't look for earthly prosperity.
As a result of personal godliness. But the Jews rightly did. It was a promise under the law.
And so now as they transition out of that system, they're giving up literally everything, not only in a religious way, but even in an outward way. And so one of the things the human heart holds most dear is possessions and goods and substance. And now that's gone, too. It's just not the temple. It's just not the priesthood. It's just not the offerings. Now there's a plundering, even if they're good. And he says you have something better.
Must have been difficult for them, as it is for us to consider in a way that which is unseen.
As superior to that which is seen, that which is tangible. And so he encourages them. You have in heaven, not even here in heaven, a better substance, and more than that, it's an enduring substance.
There's several proverbs and likewise in Ecclesiastes we read expressions like better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred there with many verses like that that are good to read and say I see this is better than that. Well, in Hebrews we have a lot of better things as well, but it's better from what was set up of God and Judaism. And now he's saying this was of God. But now I'm going to give you something better. It's what's heavenly. I think of the verse in Hebrews 11 where it says of Moses that he endured.
Seeing him who is invisible and it really gives the essence of this book because it's the sight of faith to lay hold of what God says, even though the natural eye cannot embrace it. And so this was not some academic point of doctrine. They were learning This was everything that they had looked to and could enjoy had been now taken away in their embrace of Christ has finished work. And yet he encourages them. Don't castaway your confidence.
Don't give it up now. They lost everything. But he says you have everything. It's above.
OK.
And I thank our dear brother Barry had a beautiful testimony that he had a confidence of something that was outside of this world.
And he?
Intended that his life be a testimony for our Savior.
And dear young people, I want to make this intensely personal and practical. We have a beautiful example that has gone before us in Barry's life.
It says here that he had a better and enduring substance and that was the one thing that struck me at the funeral.
And just before many here may not realize that just the week before Barry passed into heaven, he gave out #320 and it was obvious to those of us looking around that he was looking for becoming of our Savior. And I just want to make this practical to the young people. We have a choice.
We can live our lives here for ourselves and we'll be the losers. We can live it for what is in heaven, and that's the enduring substance. But it has to be based on where our confidence is.
And I want to connect these two verses. We have a confidence or we can have a confidence in what is laid out for us in heaven. May that be the focus of our lives.
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And it's often been said the darkest night is just before the dawn.
When we feel like the Lord has completely given up on us, there's no more going on. There's no way we made the wrong choice. That's often right when the Lord brings in a solution, right when he brings in our, if I could use the word, our salvation. That which we need. We pray and we pray and we pray and we're ready to quit.
And there's the answer right there. Just hang in there one more day. Whatever it is, hang in there. The answer is there. Our confidence is in him. Cast not away. Therefore your confidence. It's like you're going along and and you and you have something and it's and it's to help you. It's your canteen and you're in the wilderness and you're tired and you're hot and you throw it away. That's what you really need. Don't do that. Hold on. There's solution. The answer is gonna be there. The Lord's not gonna fail us, for we have need of patience.
That after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. And this is what we look for. For yet a little while, he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. The Lord is not just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. He's working. He's doing his work in this world. And when he's done, he's going to come. And like our dear brother just said, there's a perfect example. And our dear brother Barry, who lives for the Lord, what an example to provoke, to love and to good works for each one of us.
And then it says now because of these things now, right now, not tomorrow, not in two weeks, not in a month, not when I'm older, not when I'm retired, now, right now, today, the just shall live by faith to take God at his word. This is what he said is going to work. I believe it and I'm going to do it even if nobody else is going with me. The Lord help us.
But we do need patients very much in doing the will of God, because God lives and moves in eternity, doesn't he? And so we need to remember that and.
Just tell you a quick story took place at the Bhutan conference this year where someone raised the question. They have question and answer meetings over there where people can submit questions in a question box. And this question was, we keep hearing that it's only a little while and we keep hearing that the Lord is coming soon. Why doesn't he come?
Well, pardon the personal reference, but I guess it devolved on me on that occasion to answer the question. So I said, tell me I'd like a show of hands about how many people in this company were saved in the last 10 years.
And quite a few hands went up. Now I said how many were saved in the last 20 years? And I would say 2/3 of the hands went up.
Oh, I said, aren't you glad he waited for you? Aren't you glad the Lord didn't come? 21 years ago you would have been left out. And so as our brother said, the Lord is working. We who are saved have the need of patience to do what? To do the will of God, not our own will, but his will. And just echoing the comment that was made, I can remember one of our well known writers made the remark, he said.
If every other Christian on the face of this earth, we're living in a worldly manner and not going on right with the Lord, that would be no excuse for me to do so. Let's remember that now. I know we'll never be brought to that. According to Second Timothy two, I believe there will always be the with them until the Lord comes. But let's remember I am responsible in myself without reference to anyone else.
To do the will of God in patience.
Stop.
We've had this afternoon to carry on to.
Keep our eyes on the prize and to look forward to that day, to have patience and to wait for it, expectations that we need in this day so sorely. So we just thank you, our gracious God, for thy the leading of Thy spirit and the gift of Thy word and the hope that we have that you have given to us through it. Just thank you for these things. We ask for your blessing on the hours ahead and pray in your precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen, Amen, Amen.