Sermon Tone Analysis

A Fortiori

 

A Fortiori     RD/Heb/172b

“From the lesser to the greater”

If it is a sin worthy of divine punishment to

break the Moasaic Covenant,

how much more severe will the punishment be

for treating the work of Christ on the cross with

contempt.

Then there was an illustration given in verses 28 and 29.

This illustration that’s set up here is based on a form of logic called an a fortiori argument.

The Latin a fortiori means from the stronger.

The way this works is if something is true in one case and then you have something similar - but usually greater - if it's true in case A and case B is similar then maybe even to a greater degree; then it is true about that in a greater degree.

If you're confused now, let me explain that a little better.

It's the idea that if a sin under the Mosaic covenant is worthy of divine punishment (so if you break the Mosaic covenant) – if that sins is worthy of divine punishment; how much more severe the punishment will be for treating the work of Christ on the cross in a contemptuous manner.

See if God instantly disciplined the Israelites in the wilderness - some He took immediately out under the sin unto death – if that happens for an infraction of the Mosaic covenant which we've already studied as a lesser covenant - then when you come to this greater covenant of the New Covenant which was established (The sacrifice of Christ on the cross established it); then if you treat that contemptuously; if you treat the blood of the covenant that is the death of Christ in a  contemptuous disrespectful manner by just rejecting it, then there's going to be an even more severe punishment than what you have for infractions under the Mosaic Law.

Abiding

 

Abiding   RD/1 John/071

 

1.

Abiding is a technical term in John for the believer who is having fellowship with God, walking by the Spirit and walking in the light.

2.

Only the believer who abides in Christ can advance and mature.

When a believer is not abiding in Christ he is out of fellowship and is controlled by the sin nature.

3.

As we abide in Him not only does he abide in us but His Word abides in us and God abides in us.

Abiding is mutual.

The more we abide in Him the more he abides in us; the more we abide in Him the more His Word abides in us.

4.

Not all believers abide.

Those who don’t abide will suffer divine discipline in time and loss of rewards and shame at the judgment seat of Christ.

So abide is a term for fellowship and for someone who is spending time staying in fellowship and growing to spiritual maturity.

What we read here is, “if we love one another God abides in us.”

We can’t love one another unless God is abiding in us; God won’t abide in us unless we are abiding in Christ.

We are not going to be abiding in Christ unless we stay in fellowship.

We have to bring all this together.

The key is, we stay in fellowship, we abide in Christ, and then God in turn abides in us, and He is producing something in us: His character.

This is exemplified by the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, 23.

So love doesn’t come automatically, it comes as a result of walking by means of God the Holy Spirit.

That means that in order to love one another we have some preconditions.

We have to be learning doctrine.

We have to be using 1 John 1:9 to not only recover fellowship but then we have to be applying doctrine while we are not sinning because when we are sinning we are out of fellowship.

Loving one another brings into focus the aspect of the mutual ministry of believers to one another in the body of Christ.

This usually functions under the category of spiritual gifts.

Remember, there are two categories of spiritual gifts: temporary and permanent.

Love is not automatic in the spiritual life; it doesn’t just happen.

We have to go through the process.

The last clause in verse 12: “His love is matured in us,” is a perfect passive participle and the perfect tense indicates emphasis on the present results of a past action.

So for the mature believer at X point in time, we see God in him.

We see him demonstrate God’s character and at that point he is following the command of loving one another.

This is the result of something that has happened in the past.

The past action is the completion of love, or maturity.

Abraham

 

Abraham                          RD/Gen.

112b

 

We have seen that there are six different ways that the New Testament focuses our attention back on Abraham.

This tells us that there are six central core doctrines that come out of Abraham that we learn historically in the progress of revelation.

As we progress from Genesis to Revelation God adds incrementally information and reveals new doctrines, new information.

It doesn’t change anything but it expands.

This is called progressive revelation.

So that Noah knew more than Adam, Abraham knew more than  Noah, Joseph knew more than Abraham, David knew more than Joseph.

There is a progress of revelation.

1)      The first thing we see emphasized in the New Testament is the Abrahamic covenant.

This is the positional truth doctrine for Israel.

This is their position in Abraham.

The covenant gives them security.

That covenant is never going to be breached or taken away.

2)       The second thing we saw was that Abraham is the picture of justification at salvation, phase one.

If we want to go to a situation in history, an individual’s life, to teach justification salvation we go to Abraham.

It is taught in Romans chapter four.

3)       Third, he is the picture of justification at spiritual maturity.

He vindicates his faith, his belief, his doctrine, what he has learned, that he hasn’t been just a hearer but is an applier.

James chapter two focuses on that.

4)        Then, we learn about spiritual advance through the faith-rest drill.

This is the whole point of Hebrews 11:8ff.

Abraham goes from spiritual birth when he is justified by faith, starting as a spiritual infant, he goes to that vindication stage of spiritual maturity incrementally by passing various tests—trusting God, or in some cases failing to trust God—in his progress to spiritual maturity.

5)      He is a picture of election, that God chooses certain people for certain tasks in history; not for salvation, but He chooses Abraham in terms of what He is going to do through Abraham in history.

It is not a choice related to salvation, it is a choice related to his role in history.

6)      Missions: that all nations will be blessed through Abraham.

He becomes the foundation for the doctrine of missions.

In the Old Testament Israel wasn’t commanded to send out missionaries, they were commanded to be obedient to God and then when people traveled to Israel they would see this tremendous culture and civilization that was built on a relationship with God, and then the travelers in theory would go back home and take the gospel.

And that did happen at times, but most of the time Israel decided that they were going to compromise with the pagans around them and so they weren’t a witness at all.

In the New Testament the church goes out.

There is not a nation per se, there is a people, the church, and they are sent to all the nations in the world.

Abraham

Abraham                            RD/Gen.

108b

 

The life of Abraham is picked up in the New Testament to illustrate six different things.

This is important to understand what is happening in Genesis chapter 22.

1)      It is God’s provision for the human race, through the Abrahamic covenant (Positional Truth).

He makes specific promises to Abraham and the seed related to the land and that the blessing is going to come through his seed.

Paul picks that up in Galatians chapter three and applies it to the Lord Jesus Christ, but ultimately there will be a blessing to all mankind through Abraham.

2)      Election: God’s choice or selection of Abraham and the Jews in the Old Testament becomes the picture for understanding what Paul discusses on election in the New Testament.

3)       Justification by faith alone when the believer understands the gospel and puts his faith alone in Christ alone.

This is what we refer to as phase one salvation, the first stage of salvation.

It is instant and complete.

Cf. .

4)       Another kind of justification is given in James chapter two, and this is a vindication before man and before the angels.

5)       We have the principles of spiritual growth and spiritual advance illustrated in Hebrews 11:9-19, “By faith Abraham.”

So Abraham is a picture of how to be saved—justification by faith alone; he is the picture of mature justification—vindication before man and angels; and in Hebrews 11 he is the picture of how to get from spiritual birth to spiritual maturity.

This is indicated through the process of testing, and the classic test in Abraham’s life is Genesis chapter twenty-two.

6)      Abraham is the basis for missions because it is through the seed of Abraham that all the nations will be blessed.

So when we understand the Abrahamic covenant it drives us straight to the cross, and then the cross almost acts like a blessing prism and spreads it out for all the nations.

So the responsibility of church age believers is to promote the expansion of the gospel throughout all the nations of the earth.

Abraham’s final exam comes in Genesis 22. God tests Abraham with respect to the promises He has given.

The same kind of thing happens to us in the church age.