019 The Zeal of Jesus

Mark 11:1-18

August 2, 2015

 

A RECENT EMAIL I RECEIVED:

Good evening!

                I just had a couple of questions that have been weighing on my mind; and maybe even just more of a vent…  I listen to about 10 of your sermon’s a week for personal bible study so I feel like you are practically a fixture in my family (HA)

                I have completed Genesis, almost finished with Kings, beginning Psalm 109 and simultaneously studying Hebrews with you guys and the book of James (because my Wednesday night bible study is studying James).  And I find the more I dig into the bible with these studies, the more righteous indignation I feel.  Not towards you, but towards the way I [begin] to view the world.  While James is certainly putting this [indignation in] me, I feel like the study of the Kings has done it the most.  The Holy Spirit has really laid into me in Kings to say, more or less, “There is only one God, he is a righteous God, a holy God and the only way to please Him is Jesus Christ”  or maybe “Keep God first”. 

                [Anyway], the more and more I study I find myself in more instances where I feel absolute anger towards the world and in some instances, towards people who pervert the word of God. 

                I have a cousin who is a lesbian and her and her partner claim Christ and Christianity in their lives.  [A recent] picture on facebook about sin [brought] an outburst from them [saying] “why are we so focused on sin when we should just be focused on Jesus”.  And when I hear things like this, I never respond…but I do burn with righteous indignation.  It reminds me of the Kings who thought the high places were no big deal.  Or it reminds me of the book of James where he says to be DOERS of the word and not merely hearers.  And it reminds me of Jesus saying that if you DO what He says then you are truly His disciples. 

                I do believe that the grace of Jesus Christ covers all sin.  But can you truly be a believer in Christ if you refuse to [do] what the word of God teaches?  Granted, we all fall short and we all sin at times…but homosexuality in a marriage relationship day in and day out is like daily crucifying Christ in my eyes.  Can a couple who claims Jesus Christ in their life be covered by the grace of God while still daily living in sin?  I just don’t know…and the spirit inside me will not allow me to validate them no matter how much they try to validate themselves to me.  In my opinion according to scripture, unless they truly REPENT of their sin and turn to Christ completely…they are doomed for judgment. 

                In addition to my cousin who clings to sin and claims Christ, I find myself running into other “Christians” who, honestly, spew heresy.  In my Wednesday night bible study I heard a lady say that she didn’t believe that God gave us trials to mature our faith.  She said that we created our own trials and God just helps us out of them.  And at the same bible study I heard a different lady say that the only people going to heaven were those that kept all 10 commandments and the Jewish feasts. 

                And while unsaved sinners surely break my heart…my heart is breaking more at the people who claim Christ and the holy bible and then pervert the word as such.  The bible says there will come a day when people search for truth and Jesus and they will not even be able to find it and sometimes I am really worried that day is here.  I feel myself having to be a filter more and more instead of a sponge in God’s house.  Less and less is justified by scripture and more and more is just meant to pat you on the back. 

                How do you deal with this righteous indignation, because I know you must feel it at times, especially being a pastor.  Heck, I feel it quite often and I am just a young lady member.  And how as a woman in Christshould I respond to such feelings and…well…LIES!  My heart aches for the Christians who will wake up one day to find themselves in hell instead of with God. 

 

ZEAL IS NOT A BAD THING

Zeal – “Eagerness; enthusiasm; ardor; fervor”

Zealot – “One who is zealous, esp. to a fanatic degree.”

 

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS

John the Baptist

Matthew 3:7-10 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

 

Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say, “I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire  Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.”

 

Samuel

1 Samuel 15:33 “But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.”

 

NEW TESTAMENT APOSTLES

Peter with Simon the Magician

Acts 8:20-23 “But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”

 

Paul with the blaspheming Jews of Corinth (or Pisidian Antioch or Rome)

Acts 18:5-6 “But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

 

Paul with the legalistic Galatians:

Galatians 4:19-20 “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you — but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.”

 

Jude talking about the men who crept in unnoticed:

Jude 11-13 “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”

 

John talking about traveling preachers with bad doctrine:

2 John 10-11 “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

 

Paul with the “so-called brother” living in immorality:

1 Corinthians 5:11 “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one.”

 

ZEAL IS NOT A BAD THING!!!

 

C.H. Spurgeon, “If you never have sleepless hours, if you never have weeping eyes, if your hearts never swell as if they would burst, you need not anticipate that you will be called zealous.  You do not know the beginning of true zeal, for the foundation of Christian zeal lies in the heart.  The heart must be heavy with grief and yet must beat high with holy ardor.  The heart must be vehement in desire, panting continually for God’s glory, or else we shall never attain to anything like the zeal which God would have us know.”

 

AND JESUS HAD AS MUCH PASSION OR ZEAL OR FERVOR AS ALL OF THEM PUT TOGETHER!

 

When He came down from being transfigured:

Matthew 17:17 “And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”

 

When He was confronted by a crowd only wanting miracles:

Mark 7:34 “and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”

 

Or a crowd only wanting a sign:

Mark 8:12 “Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

 

Listen to Jesus in Luke 11 while eating at a Pharisees house:

Luke 11:39-52 “But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. “You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? “But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.  “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. “Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. “Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”  One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. “So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘ I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

 

Remember Him outside the tomb of Lazarus after so many questioned His power?

John 11:33 “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,”

 

JESUS WAS FULL OF ZEAL

BUT NO PLACE DO WE SEE THAT BETTER THAN MARK 11

 

#1 THE APPROACH – Mark 11:1-10

 

#2 THE ASSESSMENT – Mark 11:11

 

#3 THE ANNOUNCEMENT – Mark 11:12-14

 

#4 THE ATTACK – Mark 11:15-18

“He entered the temple”

“began to drive out”

“overturned tables”

“He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise”

John adds:

John 2:15-17 “And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.”

 

It was no longer the temple, the place of worship

They had made the house of God a robber’s den (hideout for thieves) and He couldn’t take it.

 

JESUS FULFILLED JEREMIAH 7

(TURN TO: JEREMIAH 7:1-16)

 

SO FRIENDS IF YOU LACK ZEAL,

THEN YOU HAVE REASON TO QUESTION WHETHER THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IS IN YOU OR NOT

JESUS WAS ZEALOUS!

 

APPLICATION:

We know the warnings:

Ephesians 4:26 “BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”

We know we’ll never get entirely away from sinners:

1 Corinthians 5:9-10 “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.”

 

 

WHEN DO I BRING OUT THE WHIP?

First, is it fair to say that Jesus only brought out the whip on the religious?  (that’s true)

Not everyone Jesus confronted was saved, but they all claimed to be.  Furthermore they sought to lead others.

 

I would also remind that there are some people who simply won’t hear what you have to say.

Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

 

BUT BEYOND THAT, WHEN IS IT TIME TO TURN OVER THE TABLES?

(Let me show you when men of God did it)

 

3 QUESTIONS:

 

1) DOES IT DISTORT THE GOSPEL?The gospel is the means of salvation, without it sinners will never be saved, it must be preserved.

• Galatians 1:6-9 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

• Galatians 2:14 “But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

• 2 John 11 “for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

 

2) DOES IT DISHONOR GOD?God is the savior deserving of glory, but beyond that a misrepresentation of Him hinders salvation.

• That is why Jesus cleared the temple – they made God look like a friend of the corrupt.

• Romans 2:17-24 “But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,” just as it is written.”

 

3) DOES IT DISTURB THE CHURCH?The church is the pillar and support of the truth and also the bride of Christ.  Her purity must be preserved and we must not allow things that discourage her sanctification or threaten future generations.

• Galatians 5:12 “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

• 1 Corinthians 5:5-8 “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

• This is why Peter was so angry at Simon the Magician, he wanted to be a preacher of God’s people.

 

BE ZEALOUS LIKE JESUS!

The Anchored Soul – Part 1
Hebrews 5:11-14
August 2, 2015

Well as you know we are studying through
This wonderful book called “Hebrews”.

It is a letter inspired by the Holy Spirit to a group of Jews
Who were struggling with their faith.

On one hand they had come out and made a public profession of Jesus,
But now as they faced the threat of being cut off from all Jewish privileges
Some of them were contemplating defecting from Jesus.

The writer of this letter is imploring them not to do that
Since in Jesus they have more than they could ever find in Judaism.

And so the writer’s objective over the first 4 ½ chapters
Has simply been to build the Hebrews theology about Jesus.

• We’ve seen why Jesus is greater than the prophets
• We’ve seen why Jesus is greater than the angels
• We’ve seen why Jesus is greater than Moses
• We’ve seen why Jesus is greater than Joshua
• And just last week we began learning why Jesus is greater than any priest who has ever been.

Namely because Jesus is “the source of eternal salvation”

Jesus can save you and save you forever!
No priest has ever been able to do anything like that.

And then he made a statement in verse 10
To explain why Jesus is capable of eternal salvation.

He said “being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Jesus can save you forever because Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek.

Now, if you will look in your Bible down to chapter 7,
You will see that the writer will there continue this thought.

But first he pauses to address another issue.
Chapter 5:10 – 6:20 is what we call a “parenthetical” section of Scripture.

The writer is momentarily breaking from his train of thought
About Jesus being like Melchizedek.
The question is “WHY?”

Why introduce Melchizedek in chapter 5 and then wait until chapter 7 to get back to him?
The answer is found in chapter 5 verse 11
Hebrews 5:11 “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

The writer says that he can’t keep going
Because his congregation isn’t paying attention.

Imagine this morning if in the middle of the sermon you fall asleep and I stop the sermon and call you out for your unwillingness to pay attention.
Well, that is what is happening here.

He is revealing to these Hebrews why they have the problems they have.
• Remember these are a people who are vacillating.
• They don’t know if they want to follow Jesus or be Jewish.
• They are filled with anxiety over which way is the right way.
• They are literally confused and scared people.

They reached out to Jesus, but they can’t seem to fully enjoy Him.
Jesus has offered rest, but they can’t seem to enter it.
Jesus offers eternal salvation, but they can’t seem to grasp it.

They are struggling.

They have Jews pulling from one side and Christians from the other
And they are like the puff of the dandelion; blown this way and that.

They aren’t sure what to believe
They aren’t sure which way to go
They are confused, discouraged, and scared

Have you ever felt that way?

Carrie and I talked about it recently.
Most of you are aware of the health problems Carrie has had over the last few years and how frustrating it can be to get help.

3 different doctors say 3 different things
And all of them are 100% sure their way is the right way.
And all of them have a few testimonials of success
Tucked away in their pocket as if to prove why they are right.

And you try one for a while with mixed results
You move to the next
Then to the next

And before long you find yourself sitting in your living room
Wondering if really any of them know the right way.

And it was in the middle of one of those moments
That Carrie and I wondered
What people on the outside of religion must think.

Here are all these religions all promising to have the answer,
All offering the same thing through different means,
And all pushing out there a few testimonials to prove their way is right.
It can get confusing.

AND THAT IS WHERE THE HEBREWS WERE.
They were confused, they were discouraged, and they were scared.

And the writer of Hebrews is about to tell them
Why they have that problem,
And more importantly he is about to tell them how to fix it.

Typically when we start a new book study I try to give it a name
That sort of gives the general idea of what we are studying.

Genesis was “The Gospel According to Moses”
Job is “The Woeful World of Uz”

This study we have just called “Hebrews”
But we gave it the subtitle: “Because Every Ship Needs an Anchor”

At the end of the day we are really in search of something that holds.
We are in search of something that is solid.
Something that will keep us from drifting toward danger

We all recognize that this world is filled with various currents
All ready to sweep us away. We need to be anchored.

And that is precisely the purpose of this section in the book of Hebrews.

The writer is out to show these anxious and confused Hebrews
Where their anchor is.

Hebrews 6:11-12 “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

It is that “full assurance of hope until the end” that he is after.

And of course he is out to show them that
This hope is found only in Jesus.
Hebrews 6:19-20 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

And that has been the purpose of this book.
He is trying to give these Hebrews the truth about Jesus
In order that he might solidify their hope and thus anchor their souls.

That has been the point. – He is trying to anchor them
But, he has hit a problem.
The Hebrews have thus far been
Disinterested in what he is trying to accomplish.

According to verse 11, they have “become dull of hearing.”

And that is the reason that they still don’t have hope.

Now, we’re going to be in this passage for the next 4 sermons
This morning we’ll see the first point about having an anchored soul.

So, do you want your soul to be anchored?
Do you want to have rest?
Do you want to have hope?
If so, this section of Scripture is for you.

#1 HE EXPOSES THE PROBLEM
Hebrews 5:11-14

Here the writer is very simply revealing to the Hebrews
Why their lives and their souls are on such unstable ground.

He is going to show them why they are vacillating, why they are drifting, why they are confused, and why they don’t know which way to go.

And I don’t mind telling you that if you find yourself in that condition,
Their problem could be your problem too.

Now let’s break it down a little further.
1) WON’T HEAR TRUTH (11)
“Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

What a bold statement.
Hebrews, you have a problem, and your problem is that
“you have become dull of hearing.”

You weren’t always this way, but now you are.

“dull of hearing” translates NOTHROS
It comes from two words which mean “no” and “push”

We would say “no drive” or “no incentive”
And thus the word came to be defined as “sluggish” or “slothful”

In short, the writer tells these Hebrews that the reason they have no hope is because they have been lazy in regard to the truth.

They are refusing to hear it.
And incidentally, “hearing” doesn’t just refer to how you listen to a sermon,

But rather how you listen to God, and thus also includes their lack of faithfulness to read and study the scriptures on their own.

To put it bluntly, they weren’t committed to hearing what God had to say.
They wouldn’t read it on their own.
They wouldn’t pay attention when someone else preached it to them.

They were “dull of hearing”

This is not the first time language like this has been used in Scripture.

Remember Isaiah’s calling?
Isaiah 6:8-10 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

The message was for Isaiah to go and preach truth,
In the process he would reveal that Israel wouldn’t heart it.

Incidentally, no Old Testament passage of Scripture
Is quoted more in the New Testament than that one.

When Jesus’ disciples asked why He spoke cryptically in parables, Jesus answered:
Matthew 13:12-15 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’”

In John 9 after healing a man born blind, Jesus said:
John 9:39 “And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

In John 12 after revealing that He was the Light and people loved darkness, John said:
John 12:37-40 “But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.”

When Jesus disciples demonstrated a lack of discernment, Jesus asked them if this blindness was in them as well:
Mark 8:17-18 “And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? “HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember,”

And when Paul was rejected by the Jews in Rome, he said:
Acts 28:25-26 “And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘GO TO THIS PEOPLE AND SAY, “YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING,BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE;”

The point is that this dullness;
This refusal to listen to what God has to say
Has been a major problem throughout the ages.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

It is a universal problem,
And the writer of Hebrews says it is their problem as well.
• Maybe they viewed the Bible as boring…
• Maybe the sermons were dull…
• Maybe Bible study was just too much work…

And incidentally, hearing from God is hard work.
Proverbs 2:1-5 “My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.”

I’ve always likened Bible study to mining.
Some nuggets do just sit right on top of the ground for you to pick up and enjoy, but there is a valuable treasure well below the surface that will require hard work and dedication if you are ever going to extract it.

It is possible that the Hebrews just didn’t want to do the work.
• They had better things to do than sit and study Scripture.
• They had better things to do than meditate on what God had to say.
• They had better things to do than to cry for understanding.

They were slothful, they were sluggish, they were lazy, they had no drive,
They were “dull of hearing” from God.

And you will see in this passage that
This one reality is more responsible for a person’s lack of hope
Than any other reality in their life.
To put it another way:
The strength of your hope is directly proportional to the depth of your theology.

If you don’t have hope you can’t blame it on the sickness,
You can’t blame it on the president, you can’t blame it on your parents,
You certainly can’t blame it on God.

The root of hopelessness is a refusal to listen to God.

Let me show you why.

They wouldn’t hear the truth, and this led to the second problem:
2) HAVEN’T LEARNED TRUTH (12)
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”

Does the point make sense?

They wouldn’t hear the truth and therefore they hadn’t learned the truth.
Makes sense doesn’t it?

If you won’t hear it, then you sure won’t learn it.
I mean listen, the spiritual knowledge of God
Does not come pre-programmed in your mind.

You aren’t born thinking like God.
You aren’t born understanding the things of God.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

1 Corinthians 2:9-11 “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”

You don’t naturally think like God thinks.
You don’t come from the womb with spiritual knowledge.
If you are to know it, then you are going to have to learn it.

And the only way to learn it is to hear it.
They wouldn’t hear, so they hadn’t learned.

AND THIS IS ACTUALLY QUITE EMBARRASSING.
For the writer says, “though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you”
Listen, a 5 year old that doesn’t understand
Justification by faith or sacrificial atonement, or eternal security, or sanctification
is expected.

But an adult who has been a Christian for 5 or 10 or more years
Who still doesn’t understand those things is disheartening.

• Look I know that Romans 5 and the original sin of Adam is a tough study.

• I know that Romans 4 and the study of justification by faith deals with a lot of history regarding Abraham and David, and it is a lot of work to get through that.

• I know that Romans 8 and the study of the sanctification of the Holy Spirit is long and at times confusing.

• I know that Romans 9-11 and the study of God’s sovereignty has some issues that are hard to reconcile in our mind.

But do you suppose it’s ok just to go on and not know it?
God preserved that for you
With the intent that you would hear and understand what He had to say.

But these Hebrews hadn’t.
They wouldn’t hear so they hadn’t learned.

And so the writer says they needed to go back to the very beginning.

“you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”

Did you hear what he just called them? -babies

If I were to ask you what you had for breakfast this morning or supper last night, I might get all sorts of answers.
(Anywhere from eggs to chicken to steak or whatever.)

But did anyone in here last night have a bottle full of milk?
Did anyone in here have a jar of baby food?

I think it’s safe to say that you’re past that.
Now we give milk and baby food to babies because that’s all they can handle.

We aren’t concerned that a baby doesn’t know what to do with a ribeye.
• But you have teeth
• You have a strong digestive system
• You can use a fork and a knife
• You know how to cook

These Hebrews were like babies who were too lazy to chew meat.
They just wanted something that had been puréed
So that they could swallow without any real effort.
AND HE IS BLASTING THEIR IGNORANCE
Because they are ignorant due to laziness.
They aren’t too dumb to learn, they’re too lazy to learn.

And now they need “for someone to teach [them] the elementary principles of the oracles of God”

Do you know what “the elementary principles” are?
It is the Old Testament.

Everything in God’s Law was ordained for a child to grasp it.

When I was in kindergarten they started teaching us letters. We started with a blow letter “M” that had arms and legs and a head. We called him “Mr. Munch”.
We could see him, we could touch him, we could learn hands on.

That is precisely what the Old Testament was.
• You saw God’s glory in the cloud.
• You learned about the separation between God and man from the veil.
• You learned about atonement by killing that lamb that had been in your house.
• You learned about uncleanness by having to live outside the camp.
• You learned about being set apart by growing the hair long on your temples.
• You learned about intercessory prayer by watching smoke from incense rise.
Everything was simple, hands on, clear cut.

Furthermore every bit of it pointed to Jesus,
But these Hebrews hadn’t even understood that.

They had never even grasped the simple truths of the O.T.
They hadn’t learned it because they wouldn’t hear it.

Now that led to another problem.

Won’t hear it, so you haven’t learned it.
Haven’t learned it so…
3) DON’T KNOW TRUTH (13)
“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.”

They had never learned the truth, so now they didn’t know it.

Have you ever spent much time teaching children?
(Maybe Sunday School or KFC)

• Any of you ever taught the story of Noah’s ark?
• Any of you have taught the story of creation?
• Any of you ever taught about David and Goliath?
• Any of you ever taught about Daniel and the Lion’s den?

Those are simple stories we teach our children over and over and over.
• Now, how often to you teach Hebrews 7 about Melchizedek?
• How often have you taught Ephesians 1 about God’s election?
• How often do you teach Jude about apostasy?
• How often have you taught the book of Job?
Not very often, because they are kids, and they can’t handle all of that yet.

But what is disheartening is when we have Christian adults,
Who have been Christians for years who still don’t know any more
Than the story of David and Goliath.

And even then they don’t know how that story represents Christ and foreshadows His victory of sin and the deliverance of His people.

They won’t hear it, so they haven’t learned it,
And therefore, they don’t know it.

They aren’t “accustomed to the word of righteousness”
Because they are infants.

Timeout preacher.
• I may not know all of those truths…
• I may not have spent time studying the Scriptures…
• BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ME NOT HAVING HOPE?

Well, let’s look at the final point here.

They wouldn’t hear truth so they hadn’t learned truth.
They hadn’t learned truth so they didn’t know truth.
They didn’t know truth so…
4) CAN’T BENEFIT FROM TRUTH (14)
“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Here the writer is now referring to those people who
HAVEN’T been lazy in regard to listening to God.
They have studied the word,
They have built their theology and solidified their doctrine.

And now their “senses” have been “trained”

If you bring black olives to my house, my kids won’t eat them.

One time we had a couple over who brought a relish tray and on it were whole black olives. My kids thought they were grapes.

One olive later and my kids learned discernment.
Their senses were trained.

You can’t give them an olive and tell them it’s a grape anymore,
They know better.
And that is the point.

People who have spent time hearing from God in His word
Simply know better than to swallow all the junk
That’s being offered to them.

I had a funeral home director come up to me one time and tell me that he was really confused about what was true (funeral sermons will do that to you).

I told him that there is no substitute
For disciplined study of the word of God.
You can’t get discernment out of a box of cracker jacks.

But that was the problem of the Hebrews.
• Jews were telling them to come to the temple.
• Christians were telling them to follow Jesus.

And they didn’t know who was right because they had no discernment.
They had been lazy in regard to God’s word
And now they didn’t know who was right and who was wrong.

Their “senses” weren’t “trained to discern good and evil.”

And the writer says the root reason is because
“you have become dull of hearing.”

• I’m trying like crazy to give you the truth that will anchor your soul and solidify
your heart and steady your emotions.
• I’m trying to tell you why Jesus is the answer and why you don’t have to fret
other teachers,
• And it would help you immensely, but you won’t hear it.

And as long as you refuse to hear it,
You will remain like a ship being tossed by every wave.
You need an anchor.

Jesus is that anchor,
• But you can’t use it, because you don’t know how.
• You don’t know how because you’ve never learned how.
• You’ve never learned how because you won’t listen to those who
would teach you how.

And there is why you are tossed every direction.

• You hear a preacher on TV and he sounds right.
• You hear a preacher at a funeral and he sounds right.
• You hear some teacher of a false religion and what he says sounds right.

• You watch NBC and you think democrats are right.
• You watch FOX news and you think republicans are right.
But at the end of the day you are tossed and influenced
By the latest wave to come crashing into your ship.
It’s because you’ve been lazy in regard to the word of God.

Did you know that God’s word is meant to stabilize you?
Ephesians 4:11-14 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;”

All those gifts listed there were in reference to disseminating God’s word.
• Apostles reveal the word
• Prophets proclaim the word
• Evangelists spread the word
• Pastors apply the word
• Teachers explain the word

But the goal of all of them so that you will “no longer be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by ever wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”

You’re supposed to know the word so that
You can tell the difference between a grape and an olive.

Jesus said:
John 8:31-32 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

It is the truth that will free you.
And that is freedom from confusion, despair, and hopelessness as well.

Psalms 19:7-11 “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.”

Psalms 119:97-104 “O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word. I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.”

Do you get the point?
The writer of Hebrews is telling this group of confused converts that
• I am about to give you the truth that will anchor your soul and pour conviction into your bones.

• I’m about to tell you things that will solidify Jesus in your hearts and you’ll never waiver again, nor fail to have hope in Him.

• I’m about to explain to you why you have forgiveness, security, intercession, hope, and an eternal home that will never be taken from you.

• I’m about to give you the truth that will calm your anxiety and allow you to see through all the lies that you’ve been taught.

• In fact, I would have already given it to you, but you wouldn’t listen, and that is why you’re in the predicament you’re in today.

SO…
• Are you ready to listen?
• Are you ready to become a student of the word of God?
• Are you ready to do the work required to understand truth?

I hope so because it is the first step to having the anchored soul.

The Source of Eternal Salvation
Hebrews 5:1-10
July 26, 2015

As you know we are studying through
This wonderful book called “Hebrews”

From the beginning I have told you that
We don’t know the specific group of people this letter was written to except that they were people who weren’t taking Jesus as seriously as they should have.
• They had certainly been taught about Him
• They knew His claim to be the Son of God
• They knew about His death on the cross
• They knew about His resurrection from the dead
• They had even made a public profession of faith in Him

SO WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?
Due to the present hardships they faced,
They were considering abandoning Jesus and returning to Judaism.

These were Jews who claimed to believe in Jesus,
But their loyalty to Jesus was being severely tested.

They were being completely banned from all things Jewish.
• No synagogue
• No temple
• No sacrifices
• No feasts
• No priest

And this reality was a hard one for them to swallow.
They are being forced decide which method is going to save them.

Please understand, these were not proud or arrogant or agnostic people.
These people knew they were sinful.
These people knew they needed forgiveness from sin.
These people knew they needed salvation.

The question was where did they think salvation was going to come from?
Was it going to come through Judaism, or Jesus?

And no longer can they walk in both camps.
In an effort to squash Christianity,
Jews had decided that those who followed Jesus
Would no longer be allowed access to the temple and its privileges.

So those who have professed Jesus
Must decide if He is worth losing Judaism over.

It is to that group in crisis that the Holy Spirit inspired
One of the most intense letters of the entire New Testament.

He is writing to assure these hesitant Hebrews that Jesus is greater than anything they have ever had before.
• He is greater than the prophets (1:1-4)
• He is greater than the angels (1:5-14)
• He is greater than Moses (3:1-6)
• He is greater than Joshua (4:6-11)

And now he is going to show them that Jesus is greater than Aaron.

And this is his main objective.
In fact, he will spend the next 6 chapters on this one theme.

Now he has already sort of hinted at it for you.
Hebrews 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Hebrews 2:17-18 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”

Hebrews 4:14-16 “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

He has already given you a taste.
• He has already shown you that Jesus is a SUCCESSFUL high priest, sitting at the right hand of the Father.
• He has already shown you that Jesus is a SYMPATHETIC high priest, having become human and faced our temptations.
• He has already shown you that Jesus is a SUPERIOR high priest, since He actually passed through the heavens to atone for you.

Now it is time to leave the hints behind and move into full-tilt theology.
He is going to spend six chapters showing you that
In Jesus you have a high priest like no other.

He is a high priest ordained by God.
He is a high priest anchored within the veil.
He is a high priest perpetually as One who never retires.
He is a high priest with a new and better covenant.
He is a high priest with a better and more effective sacrifice.
He is a high priest with a total and eternal atonement.

And by the time the writer is finished his goal is to leave no doubt
That leaving Judaism to lay hold of Jesus is a “no-brainer”.

He is actually driving toward this one main request
That you see in the final chapter of the book.

Hebrews 13:8-14 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”

That is where the writer is driving this bus.
To get all those who are in turmoil and confusion
To see that even though we have reproach,
In Jesus we have something more valuable and more lasting
Than anything ceremonial religion can offer,
And to get them to pick Jesus over everything else.

Beginning this morning he is about to put his argument into overdrive.
And it all stems around the idea of Jesus being your great high priest.

Now I fully understand that for most of you in here
The concept of a high priest may in fact be a little foreign.

If you didn’t grow up Jewish or if you didn’t grow up Catholic,
You might not have a real good grasp on the point or the purpose.

That’s ok because the writer is actually going to
Outline the purpose of a high priest very clearly for you.

It is our first point this morning, let’s look at it:
#1 FACTS ABOUT THE HIGH PRIEST
Hebrews 5:1-4

Now in order to help us understand this thoroughly I just want to
Take these 4 verses and show you 3 basics about a high priest.

1) HIS OCCUPATION (1)
“For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;”

I don’t know if any verse in Scripture does a better job of
Summing up the importance of a priest than this one.

You see that the truths he reveals here
Are those which apply to “every high priest”

That is to say, if these qualities don’t fit a person,
Then they are not a suitable high priest.

Here we learn WHAT HE IS
“taken from among men”

And very simply, he is “taken from among men”
Because it is men who he represents.

“taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men”
You will see very quickly in this verse that his role is to be a “go-between”
Or a mediator or a type of delegate on behalf of men.

So if a group of men seeks to send a delegate on their behalf to someone else, it only stands to reason that this delegate would be one of them.

So the priest is very simply a man from among men,
Who does his work on behalf of men.

He is for you, he is on your side

We also see WHAT HE DOES
“is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God,”

And so now we see where this advocate or delegate is headed.
He is a person taken from among men
With the job of going and doing business with God.

Last week we read the statement from Eli to his wicked son:
1 Samuel 2:25 “If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?”

Well the answer is: The High Priest

Picture a group of men on one side of a valley and holy God on the other.
The sinful men have offended God and God is angry about to judge.

The purpose of the high priest is to go to God on behalf of the sinful men
And seek terms of peace with this holy and angry God.

He would be responsible to find out things like:
• What did we do that offended you?
• What should we have done not to offend you?
• What can we do to make it up to you?
• Will you please not destroy us?

That was the purpose and the objective.
And because Israel had been through generation after generation of this type of procedure, they knew exactly what holy God required.

And so the PRIESTS RESPONSIBILITY became evident.
“in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;”

That is what his job is.
He approaches holy God on behalf of sinful men
And takes the offerings and sacrifices that God requires
In order not to destroy sinful man.

So do you want me to sum up for you the purpose of a high priest?
HIS JOB IS TO SAVE YOU FROM JUDGMENT

And can I be extremely clear and serious here?
YOU NEED A HIGH PRIEST

A high priest is not a luxury
A high priest is not a novelty
A high priest is an absolute necessity

Are you a sinner? Yes
Does God hate sin? Yes
Is God able to crush you into a fine powder as a result of your sin? Yes

You need a high priest.
If you don’t have one, you are in great trouble.

The high priest will go from you to God to make atonement for your sin.
That is his occupation

2) HIS OBLIGATION (2-3)
“he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.”

Here we find out something very enlightening about the priest.

Now you remember, what group was he taken from?
• He was taken from among men.
• Those sinful men who were in danger before God; he was one of them.

Now this is both a blessing and a curse all in one.

The fact that he is a sinner just like the rest of them
Means he will be sympathetic and he will be committed to his job.

I mean his eternity hangs in the balance right there with yours,
So you can bet he’ll take his responsibility seriously.

There is no fear of him getting over to God and then changing sides.
He’s going to be on your side, because he needs what he is trying to accomplish just as much as you do.

“he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.”

So it’s a blessing that he’ll be committed.

THE PROBLEM is that from an ability standpoint,
He’s not any better than you.

It would be nice if we had a priest who had never messed up,
But the reality is when you take a priest from among men,
He’s gonna have problems.

So while this priest is SYMPATHETIC, he is also INCOMPETENT.
That is to say:
We aren’t really sending a qualified delegate to handle this matter of atonement.

We would really prefer a priest who was sympathetic and successful,
Not just sympathetic.

But you see the OCCUPATION and the OBLIGATION of the priest.

One more essential reality:
3) HIS ORDINATION (4)
“And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.”

And I’m going to spend a little more time here,
Because this is the main point the writer wants you to catch this morning.

Here the writer wants you to understand that
Not just anyone can be a priest.

The delegate that is going to go before God on behalf of the people
Must be someone who is pre-approved by God.

Did you see what he said?
“And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.”

It was God who specifically chose Aaron.
1 Chronicles 23:13 “The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. And Aaron was set apart to sanctify him as most holy, he and his sons forever, to burn incense before the LORD, to minister to Him and to bless in His name forever.”

Numbers 3:10 “So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that they may keep their priesthood, but the layman who comes near shall be put to death.”
In fact you may remember that THIS VERY ISSUE
Actually came up among the children of Israel from time to time.

Some of the rabble actually complained that it wasn’t fair that
Aaron be the high priest, they thought someone else should get to do it.

Remember?
Numbers 16:1-3 “Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took action, and they rose up before Moses, together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown. They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

Korah was actually a cousin of Aaron and Moses and he thought he should have his turn to be high priest and the delegate before God.
He even challenged Moses and Aaron.

Do you remember what happened?
God opened up the ground and swallowed Korah alive.

Numbers 16:31-35 “As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. All Israel who were around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth may swallow us up!” Fire also came forth from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.”

I guess it mattered to God.

But Israel wasn’t finished.
Numbers 16:41 “But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the LORD’S people.”

So in chapter 17 God proved it again.

So in chapter 17 God had all the heads of all the twelve tribes of Israel bring a staff to Moses and write their names on it. All twelve staffs were placed in the tent of meeting and God revealed who was the selected high priest.

Numbers 17:8 “Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds.”

I think you get the point.
Aaron was God’s selected high priest.
That staff was even to be kept as a sign to remind all Israel of the fact.

See, if you were going to send someone before God,
It had to be someone God was willing to talk to.
And at various times in Scripture we encounter people
Who tried to step into that role and GOD WOULDN’T HAVE IT.

Remember Saul?
He was about to fight the Philistines but he wanted to approach God first to see if he would win, but Samuel was late.

1 Samuel 13:8-14 “Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.” Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. “But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”

It mattered to God didn’t it?

How about Uzziah?
2 Chronicles 26:16-21 “But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. Then Azariah the priest entered after him and with him eighty priests of the LORD, valiant men. They opposed Uzziah the king and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from the LORD God.” But Uzziah, with a censer in his hand for burning incense, was enraged; and while he was enraged with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense. Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead; and they hurried him out of there, and he himself also hastened to get out because the LORD had smitten him. King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. And Jotham his son was over the king’s house judging the people of the land.”

Getting the point?

You don’t just take the honor as priest.
• God has to appoint you.
• God has to select you.
• God has to agree to meet with you.

Now, those are THE FACTS ABOUT THE HIGHT PRIEST.
• His job is to save you from judgment.
• He’ll do a good job because he himself also needs saving.
• And the only one who can do it is the one whom God agrees to meet with.

So let’s get to the main point.
#2 FACTS ABOUT CHRIST
Hebrews 5:5-10

Now that you know the requirements and purpose of the high priest,
Listen as the writer explains to you how Christ
Not only meets those requirements, but how He actually exceeds them.

There are three things he wishes to show you about Christ.
1) HIS WAS ELECTED BY GOD (5-6)
“So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”; just as He says also in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”

The writer (as he loves to do) quotes from 2 Old Testament passages.
• First he quotes from Psalms 2:7 “You are My Son…”
• Then from Psalms 110:4, “You are a priest forever…”

Now that passage about Melchizedek is one that
He’s going to spend a lot more time on later,
But for now you simply need to see the point
That the writer is making from those two verses.

God chose someone to be “a priest forever”
Who did He choose? – “My Son”

The writer quotes those two passages in conjunction
To show you that God chose His Son to be a priest forever.

And that is important because
If Christ wasn’t chosen by the Father then He can’t be a priest.
But Christ didn’t appoint Himself, God actually selected Him for the job.

So the first main thing you need to know is this:
JESUS CHRIST IS GOD’S SELECTED PRIEST

And based on what we just learned
About God only doing business with the One He has selected,
I’d say that is a pretty big deal.

So Jesus was elected by God.
2) HE WAS EDUCATED THROUGH SUFFERING (7-8)
“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”
Now we also learned that we wanted a priest
Who was really, really, sympathetic to our position.

No one wanted a priest whose heart wasn’t really in it.
You don’t want a delegate to go seek out terms of peace
Who doesn’t really care if you get peace or not.

You want a priest who won’t take “no” for an answer.

Let me tell you why Jesus is that type of priest.

First, you need to be aware that when He became a human,
He suffered immensely.
“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death…”

Anyone remember the Garden of Gethsemane?
Yeah, it was awful for Him.
• He begged
• He pleaded
• He screamed
• He cried
• WHAT DID HE WANT?

He wanted to be delivered from death.
“Father, let this cup pass from Me”

Now, He didn’t want that if that was not the will of God,
But from a human standpoint, that is what He wanted.

At this point some would interject then and say:
“Well, He must not have been much of a priest, because God obviously didn’t hear His prayer.”

That’s not true.
Scripture says, “He was heard because of His piety.”

The Greek word there translated “piety”
Actually means “godly fear” or “reverence”

It means He had the highest possible view of God you could have.
He had more admiration for God than anyone else.
He thought so highly of God that God heard His prayer.

Then why didn’t God deliver Him from death?
(8) “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience form the things which He suffered.”

It wasn’t that God didn’t hear His prayer.
It was that suffering was part of His education.
What was He learning?
“He learned obedience”

What, you mean Christ wasn’t obedient?

No, that’s not what it means.
It means He learned the cost of obedience.
He learned how hard obedience was.

Look, in a minute you’re going to see Him ask you to obey Him. (That’s in verse 9) But before He asks you to obey Him,
It is important that He know exactly what He is asking.

In that garden He learned why obedience is so hard.
• He felt the pull of fear
• He felt the dread of death
• He felt the anguish of suffering
• And at that moment He learned why it is so hard for you to obey.

In one moment Jesus because sympathetic to your weaknesses.

So now, when you blow it.
You have a high priest who goes before God who knows why.
HE IS SYMPATHETIC!

You have one who has been SELECTED by God
And who is SYMPATHETIC to your dilemma.

And so that brings up our third point.
3) HE IS EFFECTIVE FOR ETERNITY (9-10)
“And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”

There again we see the effect of His education.
“having been made perfect”

This doesn’t mean that Jesus was previously imperfect, for He wasn’t.
He was always perfect in a spiritual sense.

Rather the word here means “complete”.
After the education of His suffering He now had everything He needed
To be the kind of priest you needed.

So, “having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,”

What a great statement!
“He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,”
Now first let’s make sure we see EXACTLY WHAT HE IS OFFERING.
For He is offering something that no priest ever offered.

Every priest offered forgiveness.
Every priest offered salvation.
But Jesus offered “eternal salvation”
That is – salvation forever

A salvation that wouldn’t expire
A salvation that never needs to be renewed
A salvation good for all eternity

And Scripture says that since He is perfect
He is “the source of eternal salvation,”

“source” translates AITIOS (I-tee-os)
It is a word that means “causing” or “responsible for”

It was a word that Pilate used three times regarding Jesus.
Luke 23:4 “Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds,
“I find no guilt (AITIOS) in this man.”

So in a very real sense the writer is saying that
Jesus is guilty of bringing about eternal salvation.

And please understand the implication.
APART FROM JESUS THERE IS NO ETERNAL SALVATION.

The best any Jewish high priest could offer was temporary salvation.
In fact, they had to renew their offering
Every year at the Day of Atonement.

During that feast, the high priest, a man selected by God from among men, would actually travel into the presence of God to bring about terms of peace between sinful man and a holy God. But the best terms he could ever achieve was a yearly contract.

AND THEN JESUS COMES ALONG.
• The Son of God, selected to be a priest.
• Educated through suffering and made sympathetic to your weakness.
• Traveled into the very presence of God to intercede and make atonement that would last forever.

Jesus negotiated eternal peace with God.
Isn’t that good?

Believe me when I tell you there’s never been another priest like Him.

Now for the 100 million dollar question:
WHOSE PRIEST IS HE?

• Is He the priest for every single human being?
• Did He just step in there and make it square for every single person?

And the answer is “no”
He is High Priest of a select group.

WHAT GROUP?
(see if you can spot it)
“He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”

WHOSE PRIEST IS HE?
“those who obey Him”

Up in verse 8 we saw that Jesus “learned obedience”.
That word “obedience” is the noun form of word “obey” here.

He is asking you to do the same thing for Him that He did for you.
• He is asking you to die to self.
• He is asking you to say, “Not My will by Yours be done”
• He is asking you to fully entrust yourself to Him

To these Jews it would be to forsake their Jewish roots
And embrace the path that He has for them.

And that is where it gets real.
• Jesus isn’t asking you to acknowledge Him
• Jesus isn’t asking you to know some facts about Him
• Jesus isn’t asking you to be familiar with Him
• Jesus is asking you to deny yourself and follow Him

BUT IT’S HARD!
Trust me, no one knows that more than Jesus.
He learned that in the garden.

But the promise is that if you will endure the hardship
And commit your life to Him,
Then you will have just found the only High Priest who can give you “eternal salvation”

That’s a pretty good trade off isn’t it?

I told you very early in this sermon, you need a high priest.
Now I’m telling you that Jesus can be that high priest,
If you will surrender your life to Him.
Now, if you already have, and you are now living in obedience to Christ, then friend REJOICE!

You have eternal salvation!
You have a contract with God through Christ that will never expire!
He caused it
He negotiated it
He purchased it
He is the author and finisher of it

No more Day of Atonement for you, Jesus achieved it once and for all.

Hebrews 4:14-16 “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

1 Peter 2 ,21-24 (It’s All About Jesus)

Hold Fast – Part 3
Hebrews 4:14-16
July 19, 2015

As you know, we have been making our way through
This tremendous book of the Bible known as “Hebrews”

It is called “Hebrews” because the people it was written to
Where Hebrews in every sense of the word.

On one hand they were called “Hebrews” because of their racial heritage.
• These people were Jewish.
• They were descendants of Abraham
• They were from the Hebrew people

But these people were “Hebrews” in another sense.

If you remember from our study of Genesis,
Abraham was the first man called a “Hebrew”.
In his day “Hebrew” was not an endearing term.
It meant “one who crosses over”.

It was a term that spoke of someone
Who was dwelling in a land that was not their own.

If you watch Gunsmoke, Abraham would have been called a “squatter”
Today he would have been looked at as an “illegal alien”

And the recipients of this letter are
Definitely “Hebrews” in that sense of the word as well.

They are those who have left Judaism in order to embrace Jesus Christ
And they are suffering for it.

The only difference is that in this case
They are not suffering at the hands of their new land,
But rather at the hands of their old one.

They have been imprisoned
They have been mocked
They have had their property seized
And all because they were embracing salvation through Jesus

Now all of that they handled very well.
But as I have told you now a couple of times, they are now facing the biggest battle of their lives.

It has been decided that anyone who confesses Jesus
Will be completely cut off from the synagogue and the temple.

• That meant no high priest, which meant no intercession
• That meant no altar, which meant no sacrifices and no atonement
• That meant no holy of holies, which meant no presence of God
• That meant no feasts or festivals, which meant no corporate worship

The line had been drawn in the sand.
These “Hebrews” had crossed over and
No longer would the Jews allow them to be Jewish and Christian.
They must choose.

And the decision is hard.
Not just because of all the history and tradition and social implications.

But if you are going to leave Judaism and trust in Jesus,
Then by all means you had better be right.

If you are going to leave your PRIEST and your SYNAGOGUE
And your ALTAR and your SACRIFICES and your FEASTS behind,
THEN JESUS HAD BETTER BE EVERYTHING HE CLAIMED TO BE.

Now you see the dilemma.
This is more than just the threat of persecution, this is your eternity.

To say the least, such a dilemma is weeding out those who are genuinely committed to Jesus from those who only claim to be.

These Jewish followers of Jesus are facing the dilemma of their lives.

And to that, the Holy Spirit has penned a truly remarkable letter.
(we don’t know the human author, so we are content to attribute it to the Holy Spirit)

And if I had to sum up the whole of the book of Hebrews,
I could do it in two words:
PICK JESUS

Consider Him, Trust Him, Hold Fast to Him, but above all else, pick Jesus.

The reason of course is because Jesus is greater than anything else.
• Greater than the Prophets
• Greater than the Angels
• Greater than Moses
• And last time we saw that Jesus was greater than Joshua

Because Jesus did what Joshua could not do, which was give “rest” to God’s children.
Jesus is greater.

And currently the thrust of the author is to remind these Hebrews
That they need to Hold Fast to Jesus.

Don’t turn away now just because it is hard.
And this request takes up Hebrews 3 and 4
And we’ve been working our way through it.

You’ve already seen the first two reasons to hold fast to Jesus.
#1 THE PUNISHMENT FOR DEFECTION
Hebrews 3:7-4:2

And we can’t go all the way back through it,
But if you will remember, the main point was simple.
Don’t be like faithless Israel.

You know, those people who once before promised to follow God,
But then fell away because it was too hard.

The writer quoted Psalm 95 and reminded that God “loathed” that generation and swore they would never enter His rest.

So hold fast to Jesus
Hebrews 3:12 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”

Last time we met together we saw the second reason to hold fast to Jesus
#2 THE POSSIBILITY OF REST
Hebrews 4:3-13

And again the main point was this.
Rest is a reality and rest is available.

If you will remember, “Rest” was that one thing
Always promised but never achieved.

• There was rest in the garden (God rested)
• Sin removed that rest (Adam’s curse promised labor)
• People searched and begged for rest (Noah)
• God finally offered it through Moses (The land of rest)

But Israel never achieved it.
• 40 years in the wilderness
• Failure to drive out all the inhabitants
• Worship of Baal on the high places
• Exiled to Babylon

Rest had never been achieved.
And then we saw this carpenter from Nazareth, and He said:

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

And the writer of Hebrews wants you to remember that.
Rest is real
Rest is available
BUT IT IS AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH JESUS

Hebrews 4:11 “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.”

And so again, the point is simple:
HOLD FAST TO JESUS

Because of the punishment for defection
Because of the possibility of rest

And this morning I want to give you the third reason to Hold Fast to Jesus.
#3 THE PROMISE OF GRACE
Hebrews 4:14-16

There you see again the command we have been addressing.
“hold fast”

Verse 14, “let us hold fast our confession”

And as we have said, that is the exact opposite
Of what the Hebrews were tempted to do.

They were tempted to fall away and abandon Christ.
The Holy Spirit here is commanding exactly the opposite.
“hold fast”

So let’s look a little closer at WHY.
(14-15) “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

At this point we need to do a little homework.

If you are following closely with what the writer has been saying then there is a possibility that verse 14 can seem a little out of place.

• He just warned us about defecting like faithless Israel.
• He just told us to enter God’s rest
• He just told us that God would know if we didn’t.

And then we get these two words, “Therefore, since…”

At this point we would expect him to say something like:
• “Therefore since God punishes those who fall away…”
• “Therefore since no creature is hidden from His sight…”
• “Therefore since there remains a Sabbath rest…”
We sort of expect that because it flows with
What we have been covering for the last two chapters.

But that isn’t what he says.
He sort of jumps out into left field.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

And that can actually seem a little random because he hasn’t said anything about Jesus being “high priest” for quite some time.

And so the writer can actually feel a little ADD

But he isn’t.
He is simply RETURNING TO HIS PRIMARY POINT.

Since the moment the writer began this letter
There was one main thing he wanted you to know.

He wanted you to know that in Jesus you “have a great high priest”

He introduced that in chapter 1, verse 3
Hebrews 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

He expounded a little on it in chapter 2
Hebrews 2:17-18 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”

In fact, he will tell you later that this is his main objective.
Hebrews 8:1 “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,”

So the writer is not jumping off theme here,
Instead he is jumping back on theme.

He wants you to hold fast to Jesus,
• Not only because of the punishment for defection,
• Or the possibility of rest,
•
But because Jesus is your great high priest
And you most certainly don’t want to abandon that.

Jesus is your “great high priest”

Now the Jews certainly understood a need for a priest.
When the priest Eli in the Old Testament learned that he had wicked sons who were sinning against the Lord, he asked them:

1 Samuel 2:25 “If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?”

And that is a good question.
Who will intercede between you and God?
You need a priest!

This is what was making leaving Judaism so hard for these Hebrews.
If they left Judaism, they were leaving their priest behind.

They were losing their sense of access to the Father.
They were losing the one who would atone for their sin.

In Judaism they had a priest – they just didn’t have a great one.
BUT JESUS IS A “GREAT HIGH PRIEST”

“great” translates MEGYS
And it is a word that means great.

It can mean “bigger and better”
It can refer to a “higher rank”
It can refer to “more ability”

In Matthew 8:26 it is translated “perfectly”
Matthew 8:26 “He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.”

In Matthew 20:31 it is translated “all the more”
Matthew 20:31 “The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

In the simplest sense we are referring to one that is “better”

Jesus is no ordinary high priest,
He is Bigger, Better, Higher Ranking, More Able,
Who Went Further, Accomplished More, And did it all perfectly,
Fully exceeding anything any other priest ever did.

LET ME SHOW YOU WHY
Because Jesus has gone where no other priest has ever gone.
Jesus has “passed through the heavens”

Now think about the work of the Jewish high priest.
• A man made tabernacle
• The Holy of Holies
• Could only enter once a year to make atonement
• And he must get in and get out

It was only a man-made copy of God’s altar,
But the priest still didn’t have full access to it.

But Jesus took His sacrifice directly into the very presence of God.

Jesus “passed through the heavens”

The Bible teaches of 3 heavens
• The Atmospheric heavens – clouds are (see it by day)
• The Stellar heavens – stars are (see it by night)
• The Abode of God – the unseen heaven where God dwells

Jesus passed through the first two and now dwells in the third.

That alone makes Him a greater high priest
Than any who have come before Him.

Hebrews 9:11-12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

He has taken His ministry to a level that no Jewish priest ever did.
No priest ever entered the third heaven
No priest ever lingered even in the man made holy of holies
And certainly no priest ever sat down there

But Jesus did.
He entered the abode of God and sat down,
“having obtained eternal redemption”

He is “a great high priest”

BUT THAT ISN’T ALL
(15) “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Here is the next area that separates Jesus
From every other high priest available.

HE IS SYMPATHETIC
“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,”

A priest is one who mediates between God and man.

No one wants a priest who goes to God and says:
“I really don’t know what their problem is. They’re just messed up.”
None of us want that.
We want a high priest who is sympathetic to our struggles.
JESUS WAS!

Jesus was FULLY MAN
He became human.

He learned first hand of all the “weaknesses” of the human race.

Hebrews 2:14a “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same,”

John 1:14a “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,”

He came to walk amongst us so He would be able to sympathize with us.

Jesus is “a great high priest”, because He understands our struggles.
He is sympathetic to our weaknesses.

Psalms 103:8-14 “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

Jesus was sympathetic – WHY?

Well, look at what the writer says next:
HE WAS SEASONED
“but One who has been tempted in all things as we are,”

Here we learn why he can sympathize with us.
He has been seasoned.

• He knew the pains of hunger
• He knew the pains of fatigue
• He knew the pains of betrayal
• He knew grief
• He knew despair
• He knew dread

Beyond that, He faced every single temptation.
Luke 4:13 “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.”

And incidentally,
He faced a greater degree of temptation than you will ever know.

Hebrews 12:3-4 “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;”

What does that mean?
When Jesus was in the garden, He was in such agony over what He had to do that He literally sweat drops of blood.

Have you ever been in such temptation and agony
That you sweat drops of blood?

Jesus is sympathetic because He was seasoned.

You will never go to Him as your priest
With a struggle that He can’t identify with.

He was SYMPATHETIC, He was SEASONED
HE WAS SUCCESSFUL

“yet without sin”

He defeated every temptation
He overcame every temptation
He knew your hardships and limitations, but He defeated them.

Earthly priests can sympathize with your weakness
Earthly priests can walk through the same struggles you walk through
BUT NONE OF THEM CAN CLAIM PERFECT VICTORY OVER THEM

You could come to me and ask me to teach you how to play the piano.
I can identify with your weakness,
But I can’t help you overcome your problem.

BUT JESUS WAS SUCCESSFUL

This makes Him a greater high priest than any the world has ever known.

And because of that, the command is simple.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

You have the greatest high priest the world has ever known,
Don’t pull away from Him now.

Don’t leave Him to return to one of those lesser priests.

There is no one else like Him
Hold fast
But in reading these three verses, you also notice that
Holding fast is not all that the writer wants.

He actually gives a second command:
(16) “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

He just told us that we have a great high priest.
We have a priest who passed through the heavens
We have a priest who sits at God’s right hand
We have a priest who is sympathetic, seasoned, & successful

NOT ONLY SHOULD YOU NOT FALL AWAY
YOU OUGHT TO DRAW NEAR!

“Therefore let us draw near”
That is to say – COME ALL THE WAY

You are deliberating where you are.
• You are sitting in a cross roads.
• You’ve professed Christ,
• Until now you’ve kind of been Jewish and Christian.
• Now the Jews are forcing you to choose
• You are contemplating what to do.

Well, by all means hold fast what you have, but beyond that,
COME ALL THE WAY UP TO JESUS.

And this is such a good message because there are so many
Who seemingly sit in limbo right there.

• People who did publicly profess Christ (because in church it’s easy)
• But now they feel the pull back to their old manner of life
• And they are currently at a cross roads
• Do I return to my old life, or do I follow Jesus?

Remember that rocky soil?
Matthew 13:20-21 “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.”

Well you could say that these people are about to prove
If they are rocky soil or good soil.

They have professed Christ,
But now their confession is being put to the test
And it’s about to be revealed what they really are.

Well the Holy Spirit’s desire is clear enough:
• First – HOLD FAST
• Second – DRAW NEAR

Not only should you not abandon Christ, you shouldn’t stay still either.
“Draw near”

Draw near to what?
“to the throne of grace”

That is a peculiar name.
The Jews always associated God’s throne with judgment,
The writer now calls it “the throne of grace”

WHY?
• Because Christ has ascended to that throne having obtained redemption.
• Christ has paid the debt
• Christ has satisfied God’s wrath
• The judgment has been poured on Christ

Now the throne isn’t distributing judgment, it is distributing grace

And the writer here says that we can draw near to this throne.
It is another way of saying that we can draw near to the very presence of God.

And if that wasn’t mind blowing enough,
Notice HOW the writer says we can approach that throne.

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace”

TIMEOUT
If I’ve learned anything from reading the Old Testament,
It is that you never approached God’s throne,
And if you did, you certainly wouldn’t do so confidently.

In fact, only one man once a year even entered the holy of holies,
And he had bells sewn on the hem of his garment
So that people would know if he had died in the presence of God.

And yet the writer says we can approach it “with confidence”

WHY?
Because you have a great high priest there.

Listen to what Jesus taught:
John 16:25-27 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”
Now there are more benefits to Jesus being your priest than this,
Which we will get into throughout the course of this study,
But for now just notice what has transpired.

Through Jesus, you can now do what no Jew could ever do.
You can confidently approach the very throne of God.

For what purpose?
“so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

“receive mercy” – forgiveness of sin
• You can now draw near to God’s own mercy seat through Jesus.
• You don’t need an earthly priest (all earthly priests today are blasphemous)
• Through Jesus I can confidently go to God’s throne and find forgiveness.

Romans 8:33-34 “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

“find grace” – help with life’s struggles
• You don’t need a priest to relay your requests to God.
• You can draw near to God’s throne of grace through Jesus.

AND I SHOULD THINK THE POINT IS ADEQUATELY MADE
Instead of running from Jesus, why don’t you turn and run to Him,

The One who can give you rest
The One who can grant you access to the Father
The One who can give you mercy and grace

SO HERE IT IS
• You are in a cross roads – a crisis of belief
• On one hand is your old manner of life, whatever that may be
• On the other hand is Jesus the One who offers mercy and grace

And you have to choose what to do with Him.
Will you run to Him, or will you run away from Him?

If you run away,
• There is no mercy
• There is no grace
• There is no rest
• There is only the anger of God.

But if you run to Him
• You find atonement and mercy and forgiveness for sin
• You find grace to help in life’s struggles
• You find rest from your efforts to make yourself pleasing

But one thing you can’t do is stay where you are.
YOU ARE A SHIP AND SHIPS WILL DRIFT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER