19) Hebrews - Be Encouraged Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Teach God’s Character and Work. (The Word)
So that the people may turn from a rebellious Heart (Root) Sins of “Unbelief, Pride, Selfishness” (Repentance)
and “Be Reconciled to God” (Justification)
Resulting in Transformation - behavioral change of the work of the HS (Sanctification)
Which is obedience to the will of God (The Word)
Resulting in encouraged by God’s Character and Work to hold fast to the Promise of Hope. (Faith and Belief)
Resulting in Eternal Rest, Joy, Peace, Worship (Glorification)
Gathering - Community Announcements
Love offerings / New Member class / Veteran's Day
Call to Worship
A psalm. 1 Sing a new song to the Lord, for he has performed wonders; his right hand and holy arm have won him victory. 2 The Lord has made his victory known; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered his love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen our God’s victory. 4 Let the whole earth shout to the Lord; be jubilant, shout for joy, and sing. 5 Sing to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and melodious song. 6 With trumpets and the blast of the trumpet shout triumphantly in the presence of the Lord, our King. 7 Let the sea and all that fills it, the world and those who live in it, resound. 8 Let the rivers clap their hands; let the mountains shout together for joy 9 before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world righteously and the peoples fairly.
Corporate Prayer -
Worship through Song
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
Worship through Song
Worship through Song
Prayer
Sermon
Introduction
Introduction
We will continue today in the book of Hebrews chapter 6. We will be starting in verse 13 if you would like to turn there. While you are turning there let us look at where we are in the text. Last week we basically finished one of the warnings in the book of Hebrews. He has started to write about Jesus as a great high priest and what that means to the church but he paused in his dialog to address an issue that was going on in the body.
The Jewish Christians were struggling with the temptation to go back to the traditions and ceremonies of the old testament. These were comfortable for them and were safe to them. They are being persecuted and they are navigating what life looks like in the new testament church.
He ended the warning with an encouraging tone as we read last week.
9 Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them. 11 Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, 12 so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.
God is not unjust, he tells them. He will not forget your work and love that you demonstrate by serving the saints. It was his desire that each and every person would be diligently looking forward to the full assurance of their hope. Because if they were not diligent they would become lazy or sluggish but if they were diligent they would become imitators of those who inherit the promises. Those that inherit the promises were described with two characteristics:
They were faithful and patient. They persevered.
The warning here is simply a warning about faith and trust. There were people in the church that were struggling in their faith and trust in moving away from the old covenant and living in the new covenant of Jesus.
The author of Hebrews in not the only writer God used to address this issue.
15 We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,” 16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
Explain issue.
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing? 5 So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard—6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness? 7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons. 8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.
Can a person be saved and be aborn again christian and struggle in trusting in God? The answer is yes. Paul is correcting the Galatians who were doing the same things that the recipients of Hebrews were doing. They were going back to the confidence of being under the Law. They were going back to trusting in the works of man instead of diligently resting in the grace of God through faith and trust.
Paul used Abraham as an example to the Galatian church and so does the author of Hebrews.
He uses Abraham as an example of one who was patient to inherit the promise through faith but the focus is not on how great an example Abraham was but how great a God God is.
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: 14 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. 15 And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
The Promise
The Promise
After God created the earth and man. We see that everything is good and God is well pleased. Then we come to the fall of mankind as Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man fell from its place of honor.
It takes very little time for the first murder take place. Evil continues to grow until we get to the time of Noah and God floods the earth as saves Noah and the the members of his family. There are 10 generations from Adam to Noah and there are 11 from Noah to Abraham through his son Shem.
God’s chooses Abram in Genesis 12 who would later be named Abraham
1 The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
God called Abram and makes three promises as part of the his covenant with Abraham. He will give them a land, make him into a great nation of many descendants, and all the peoples of earth will be blessed through him.
From chapter 12 through chapter 22 God continues to define the covenant that is being made and in chapter 15 God ratifies the covenant unilaterally. God makes this agreement and these promises to Abraham but it is God only only God who will execute the covenant. There are no conditions put on Abraham. This is the promise that would redeem men back to God and it would be by the work of God and not of man.
Abraham was to be obedient and to be faithful to God but the covenant was not based or contingent on the works of Abraham.
In Chapter 22 God reaffirms the covenant with a promise. An Oath.
16 and said, “By myself I have sworn,” this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.”
This is the promise that the author of Hebrews is referring to in verse 13
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: 14 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you.
Because God had made the covenant, ratified the covenant, and then he made an oath “By myself I have sworn”
Because of this Abraham obtained that promise as he waited patiently for the promise to be fulfilled. This ties this encouragement back to the previous section.
11 Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, 12 so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.
Unlike the Covenant to Abraham the Mosaic covenant that God made to the Israelites after he brought them out of Egypt, this covenant was not based on the work of Abraham. The Mosaic one was full of conditions that God would bless the nation if they fulfilled their part of it and he would bring curses on them if they failed to obey it. God was always faithful to his promise and as we know through the scriptures and through history that Isreal was never able to keep their part of the promise.
The Mosaic law was never ment to save the people. That promise had already been made to Abraham and was to be fulfilled by God.
13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
The Mosaic Covenant had been perverted into a a false salvation of works-righteousness. The promises that God gave were never based on works they were always based on faith. From the Prophet Micah
6 What should I bring before the Lord when I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? 7 Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin? 8 Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.
It wasn’t the sacrifices that were pleasing to God it was their obedience and motives. However they never had heart that could do this. They continued to pursue it through a work mentality and not a trust and faith belief as Paul describes in Romans.
30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
As the people were turning back to the Mosaic laws for a works-based salvation. He is reminding them that Abraham was counted righteous not because of his works but because of his faith. This promise was made was made after a test of Abrahams faith and trust in God.
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. 2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” 3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together. 9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” 12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.” 15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven
12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”
I have heard many stories about what Abraham and Isaac must have been thinking but most if it is made up. What we do know is that through this entire time Abraham believed God’s Words that he would make a nation through Isaac the son of promise. How he rationalized it or not is between him and God but it was his faith and trust in God that was accounted to Abraham as righteousness. He was counted righteous before the Law had been given.
God’s Character
God’s Character
The people were struggling with confidence so the author reminds them of the character of God.
The first is the condescending of God to help man in his weakness.
16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath,
A person’s word had to mean something in this time. When a person made an oath they would swear by something higher than themselves. They may swear on the alter, or the high priest, or even God. These were binding. If one of these was made it ended the argument or the discussion. There were severe warning against making rash or evil oaths as they were binding on them.
The new testament even warns against making them. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Unlike in our world today promises don’t mean much. People make vows at weddings between husband and wife. Many times these are just forgotten.
Politicians and government officials make promises all of the time. Who here believes that they will actually do them? Some of us have been in jobs where promises are made and there is a failure to follow through.
We do not have the culture that they had back then. If you were accused of a crime and you swore on one of these things it would be over because no on dared to make those statements.
God did not have to make an oath. All of his words are truth. Anything he says from his mouth become truth. Before the was a world there was just God. Until he spoke and then there was. When God speaks it is truth.
So when God wanted to shown his unchangeable purpose more clearly, he guaranteed it with an oath.
Because God is omnipotent all powerful. What that mean? What does it mean to be all powerful? It means that nothing can stop his will. What ever God wills it is done. Period. Nothing an change God’s will other than God himself. Because of this he does not need to make an oath. The promises that he made to Abraham were binding and effective for no other reason than because he wills them to be.
The ESV reads this way
16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath,
He wanted to show his unchangeable purpose. So that,
18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
What are the two unchangeable things. God’s word and God’s oath. And because God cannot lie. Why? Once again anything spoken by God is truth therefore he cannot speak of anything false.
1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
Because God cares for men he gave two unchangeable things, His word and his oath. He cannot lie. So that through these two things:
The Encouragement
The Encouragement
We who have fled, might have STRONG encouragement. Encouragement to seize, to hold onto the hope set before us. Those who have fled for refuge is reference to the cities of refuge that a person would flee to if they had accidentally killed someone. The reference here would give the image of fleeing from sin and running toward the hope that they have. Toward the unchangeable God. The person who repents of their sin and turns and flees toward Christ as the one who kept the Mosaic law in our place. If a person flees back to the law they were condemned by it as they could not fulfill it in their own power or will. For we have...
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.
Those that have fled towards Christ not in works but in faith have this hope. The hope that stands as an anchor for the soul. This hope that we have is not based on our ability to be amazing people. It is not based on how much we do or don’t do. This hope is based on the character of God and trust in his promises. The promise of the new covenant. The one spoken of by Jeremiah
31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
The new covenant is unlike the Mosaic one. In the new covenant God will put his teachings into men and women. He will right it on their hearts. We know God. Because of the Spirit of God.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.
It was the work of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah that would seal the covenant of Abraham and bring for the new covenant.
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus entered the inner place behind the curtain. Only the High Priest once a year on the day of atonement could enter the Holy of Holies. There he would make atonement for the nation. To appease the wrath of God. Jesus when he died entered the holy of holies behind the curtain and atoned for all of mankind once for all and there the presence of God was and now Christ sits at the right hand of the father in his presence as a forerunner to the heirs of the promise.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
The method that God used to make the covenant with Abraham effective was the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. All who have saving faith into the promise to Abraham.
29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.
We are the children of promise.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Who do you trust? Are not becoming a society that is getting more and more trusting?
No. The reality is that each and every person puts there trust in something. There are really only three things that people put there trust in this World, Themselves, or Jesus.
This world is a place full of the schemes of the enemy the father of lies. This world with all of its bells and whistles really is a place full of promises that are based on lies. It is full of false religions and false promises. TV commercials. They look good but unlike God they are promises that are changeable. They are not lasting. They are weak and will break and fail before the end comes.
28 Anyone trusting in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.
Others trust in their own power, intellect, strength to win out the day. Unfortunately if we are really honest with ourselves that is not a great place to stand either.
26 The one who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.
The correct place to to put our trust is the same place that the author of Hebrews does, in the hope and anchor of our faith out Lord Jesus Christ.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;
You may ask can I ever trust in myself? God gave those who believe in him the Spirit of God. Can I trust in my fleshy nature no. I will fail over and over. Can I trust in the work of the spirit in my life? every time.
Can I ever trust in other people? Nope. But can you trust the work of God in other people absolutely.
The covenant to Abraham is based on God’s work not his. Everything in this world that is righteous, pure, true, is of God. By him and for him. It is his glorious character that we are in awe that he condescended to love us by sending his son to die for us. It is by the work of God that we are reconciled to God. It is By God’s Word that we know read his will. It is by his spirit that we understand his will. It is by his Spirit that we are transformed into his likeness. It is by his spirit that we are sealed and carried to the end.
It is because of who he is and what he is doing that we can have the same encouragement that we read today. We gain strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope because of who he is and because of who he is we can hold fast.
What are you putting your trust in? Do you struggle to believe that God hears your prayer? Is God still here? Do you find you self on shaky ground. Please be encouraged today.
As we come to his table today let us examine ourselves. Let us sit in the confidence and assurance in who he is and what he did on the cross.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.