HEBREWS 10-13 JESUS IS BETTER PART 32014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Hebrews 10-13 Jesus Is Better Part 3

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014.

And we are here this evening in Hebrews looking at chapters 10 through 13, which are the chapters that we read this week as we are going through the Bible in three years. We're finishing up the book of Hebrews tonight. And man, this is a meaty book. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that you don't just get by glancing at it once or twice or by skimming through, but there's things that you really got to work through.

And you got to consider there's so many references back to the Old Testament because this is a book that was written to Jewish believers. We don't know who the author is. We don't know exactly when it was written.

But from the context or from the book itself, we can see that it's written to Jewish believers. And the purpose is to explain to these Jewish believers that the new covenant is superior to the old covenant. Because it seems that there was this tendency and this desire for Jewish believers to go back

To the things of the old covenant. That is back to the law of Moses. Back to the animal sacrifices. And back to those things that were part of their culture. Part of their custom they grew up with. And they were tending to go back to those things and away from Christ. And so the author of Hebrews is explaining that what we have in Christ is far superior to what was had under the old covenant. Right?

And so the author goes on then to warn the people against falling away. And we've been seeing those clear and strong warnings throughout the book of Hebrews. And we'll see a couple more this evening. But we'll start off here in Hebrews chapter 10 with verse 12 being the key verse. It says,

Here in chapter 10, the author of Hebrews has been concluding this idea of Jesus being a superior high priest. He is a superior mediator. He is, you know, superior in all things to the Levitical system and what they had under the law of Moses. And so he continues that here in chapter 10 to talk about the animal sacrifices.

And how the animal sacrifices under the law could never make anyone perfect. And that's why he says in verses 1 through 4, the law can never make those who approach perfect. He explains in verse 1 that the law had the shadow of things to come. As you read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, where God gave his law to the children of Israel,

Here the author of Hebrews is saying those things were the shadow of what is to come. They were established by God. They were God's desire and his plan for the children of Israel for that time. But they weren't meant to be permanent. They were meant to point to or to be a shadow of the reality which is found in Jesus Christ.

He goes on in verse 2 to say, look, if the law could make people perfect, then there would not be a need for ongoing sacrifices. If the law was effective at bringing people to perfection, then, well, you wouldn't have to keep going back to offer those sin offerings to the Lord.

But that wasn't the case. Actually, as part of the Mosaic law, you had to regularly, and when you sinned, you would bring your sacrifice to the temple and offer it to God.

deal with or to address the sin that you committed. And so the purpose of those sacrifices was not to deal away with sin or to make you perfect, but instead, verse 3, he says, in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. The purpose of those sacrifices is to let us know, hey,

You're not perfect and that's why you have to keep offering these sacrifices to the Lord. He goes on in verse 4 to say, it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. And so he's establishing here the reality. Again, talking about the superiority of what we have in Jesus. How he far exceeds what was before and anything else that we could come up with.

that we could follow the Levitical system. And sometimes people do that. There's, you know, groups within Christians or the Christian world that desire to go back to the Old Testament and follow the Levitical system and follow the dietary laws and follow, you know, the things that are recorded there. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is, well, those things can't take away sin.

Those things can't bring you to perfection. Those things don't come close to what we have in Christ. Now this was what they were struggling with because, again, they were Jewish believers. They were raised in this culture. The temple was still there and so there was that temptation to go back and attempt to approach God through these sacrifices.

We're pretty far removed from that today. And yet, I would ask you to consider your own heart because we, even though we don't have the Levitical system that we run to, we do often create in our minds and in our hearts our own religious systems where we approach God based on how we do things

in measuring up to our standards and measuring up to what we've established or what we think is appropriate. Think about it this way and maybe if I could ask for some honesty. By a show of hands,

Who has ever tried to make up for some sin or failure with good works? Anybody ever tried to do that? Pretty much all of us, right? We create these systems, not necessarily intentionally. Sometimes we don't recognize it until we're far in it, but it's like, well, I did this sin.

Or I behaved this way or I fell in that way. And so I need to then, you know, give extra when they pass the offering because I sinned in that way. And so I need to compensate for that. Or maybe I need to read my Bible for, you know, three hours more than usual today because of some thing that I was involved in or some way that I failed.

And we come up with these systems where we try to meet, you know, these standards. And if we don't meet the standards, well, we have ways to compensate for that. Sacrifices that we make. But listen, if the law that God established...

The Old Testament. If the law that God established was temporary and unable to make anyone perfect, the things that we establish will not be any more effective than the law that God established. The things that we come up with are far weaker. And the point is not to try to come to God with our good works or with, you know, how we measure up to whatever standards that we've applied to ourselves, whether high or low.

but to come to God by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And so he goes on in verses 5 through 10 to say, we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus. You have been set apart. You've been made clean by the offering of Jesus's body, not by your compensation for whatever sin that you have done. He explains here that Jesus came to do the Father's will.

And Jesus didn't come to offer animal sacrifices, but to offer himself as the final sacrifice. In verse 10 he says, by that will, that is the will of the Father, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And so he's drawing this contrast. In the Levitical system, there's repeated sacrifices over and over and over again.

But with Christ, his sacrifice was once for all. One sacrifice paid for all sin of all humanity, past, present, and future. And that's what Jesus came to do. And he accomplished that. And so we have been sanctified by his sacrifice, by his giving of himself to pay the price for our sin.

The reality that the Bible presents is that God has pleasure in people. And he rejoices and delights in relationship with people. And the sacrificial system that he established

it was a temporary method or a temporary patch for that to happen, for his people to have fellowship and relationship with him. But it was temporary until Jesus offered himself. That was the completion of all that God had promised through the law. And so sacrifices were necessary because of sin, but

Because they were a means for sinners to come and have right relationship with God. But now that Christ has come, there's no going back. There's no other system. There's no way to be more pleasing to God than by believing in Jesus Christ and receiving his sacrifice that was once for all. And so again in verses 11 through 18, he offered one sacrifice for sin.

He's drawing this contrast. He wants to make sure it's clear in our heads as opposed to the many sacrifices. And if you come up with your own religious system or, you know, system in your mind where you have these standards and if you fall in this, then you have to do that. You're going to have to be doing those things over and over and over again. They can't bring you to perfection.

They can't. They can't do away with sin. No laws, no rules, no regulations, no discipline. We can't come up with something that will bring us to perfection. And that's the point. That's the point. All of those things fail and Jesus offered one sacrifice for sin.

And so the author of Hebrews says in verse 11, the priests stand ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. They're in this system. They continue to offer these sacrifices. Now today as we read this, the temple, you know, has been long ago destroyed and the sacrifices have ceased, but they will continue or resume once again one day. But

Not because God has established it, but because they will continue to try to approach God through these sacrifices that cannot take away sins. I kind of think about it like medication. So I have a thyroid condition.

in which it was, well, it had to be addressed and the thyroid was out of control. And so what they did was they killed my thyroid. And so now for the rest of my life, I take a synthetic thyroid hormone that keeps my body in balance. And so every day I have to take this medication for my thyroid. This medication doesn't heal me. It doesn't actually make me better. And so every day when I take it, it's a reminder my thyroid is dead.

It can't do anything. It doesn't produce anything. It has no value. And so I'm reminded of that. But it doesn't heal me. It doesn't fix anything. It's a daily reminder that my thyroid is dead. Now if I was healed, then I wouldn't need the medication anymore. And that's the same idea. Sacrifices and us trying to compensate for sin, it doesn't fix anything. It doesn't actually heal you.

You think, well, I'll try to pay for and God will be pleased if I do this because I did that. But it doesn't actually accomplish that. But you can be healed once and for all so that you don't need the medication any longer. And that is by faith in Jesus Christ. And so verse 12, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. In the tabernacle of the Old Testament, there was different pieces of furniture.

There was a table. There was a lampstand. There was an altar. There was the Ark of the Covenant. But there were no couches. There were no chairs. Because, well, that place was not a place for sitting. It was a place for serving. And so the priests would go in and tend to the lampstand. The priests would go in and offer the incense on the altar. The priests would go in and replace the bread on the table.

He would go in and he would do things. He wouldn't go in and sit down because the priest's job was never done. It wasn't a place or a time for sitting. But Jesus, on the other hand, offered one sacrifice for sins forever. And then he sat down at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He sat down because the work is accomplished. That is, the price for sin has been paid in full.

There's no more work to do to compensate for sin. And that's something that's so hard for us to get through our heads. And that's why the author of Hebrews wrote this to those Jewish believers who were going back to the old covenant. But it's so appropriate for us as well as we tend to go back to those legalistic ideas of trying to pay for sin.

I did this bad, so I must do this good. And we get caught up in these sometimes without even realizing it because it's our natural tendency to try to compensate for sin with good works or with some, you know, sacrifice that we make. But the point is, Jesus completed the work. He sat down at the right hand of God. It's finished. Your sin has been paid in full. You don't have to do anything anymore.

To pay for your sin any longer. There's no judgment that God has for your sin any longer if you believe in Jesus Christ. Those who believe in Jesus receive a complete forgiveness. And not only that, but then full access to God. Verses 19 through 25, he says, having boldness to enter, let us draw near.

Now, these verses are really, really incredible. And I wish I could spend, you know, the next six weeks just camping out here in these verses. We can't do that. But you can do that. Make sure that you take some time later on to recap and go back and review these verses.

He says in verse 19, Now, the author of Hebrews here is referring back to the things of the tabernacle.

which was the place that God had established for his people to come and to worship him.

And I reviewed it a little bit last week. We'll look at it again real briefly. I should give you the picture here. So here's the tabernacle in the wilderness. This is what it probably would have looked like. This is a model based on the description that we have in the book of Exodus. And so you have the altar there where the sacrifices would be burned before the Lord. You had the laver, which is where the priests would wash their hands after the sacrifices. And then you had the actual tent, the tabernacle.

And only the priests would go inside there. The normal Jewish person could never go inside, but the priests could go inside. And there was two rooms within the tabernacle. Now it's interesting that this building is, you know, the tabernacle would fit within this room. From that wall to this wall is about 45 feet. And that is the length of the tabernacle.

And the width of the tabernacle was about 15 feet. Now that's from the wall to here. So this whole section of the room here would be the same dimensions as the tabernacle. And that's why the blue tape is here. So you can kind of get an idea. It would go, you know, this whole section of the room would be the size of the tabernacle.

And again, it was divided in two. So Javier would be the entrance of the tabernacle and the priests would come in and there would be, you know, the lampstand and the table and then the altar of incense. And then this blue line here would have been the veil. And the veil was what separated Jesus

This room here would be called the holy place. And then this room was called the most holy place or the holy of holies or the holiest of all. And it was here where the Ark of the Covenant was.

And the Ark of the Covenant, it was this basically just a box. But it had inside of it the Ten Commandments. It had the manna that God had provided in the wilderness. And it was above the Ark of the Covenant where there was these angels that were carved onto the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. And God said, there between the angels right there above the Ark, that's where my presence will be. And that's where I will dwell with my people. Now the thing was...

The priests would go into the tabernacle and serve, again, with the lampstand, the table, the altar of incense, but they would not go into the most holy place where God's presence was. They weren't allowed. If they went in, they were dead. They would die, and that was demonstrated later on in Israel's history.

But the high priest, one time a year, was allowed to come in. On the Day of Atonement, they would go through this big procedure, offer these specific sacrifices that God had instructed, and he would come in with great fear, and he would sprinkle the blood of the offering onto the Ark of the Covenant. Jewish history tells us that they were so fearful about doing this that they would actually have a rope tied around their ankle as they went in.

So that if they died, the people on the outside could just drag him out. So they wouldn't have to go in and risk death themselves to recover the body of the high priest if he went in in an unworthy manner. Some would say also that they had, because they had the bells around the bottom of their garments. And so they'd be able to hear like, okay, is he still moving? He's still, okay, he's still moving. There was no thump. Okay, I think he's okay. But they were ready to pull him out just in case, you know, if he dropped dead. Because the presence of God was there.

And God said, that's where I'll meet with my people. Now here's what the author of Hebrews is saying. In Hebrews chapter 10, he says, therefore brethren having boldness to enter the holiest. That's this spot here. That's where the ark of the covenant is. That's where the presence of God is. He says, we have boldness. You as a believer have boldness to enter. Previously, the high priest could only enter one time a year, but you have boldness to enter by the blood of Jesus.

And by this new and living way, which he consecrated through the veil. That's again, this veil right here that would separate the holy place from the most holy place. And he says that veil is the body of Jesus. What once separated us from the presence of God, well, now the body of Jesus has been broken. It's been torn so that you have access into the presence of God.

And so the author of Hebrews is saying, look, what you have as a believer in Jesus is far superior to what the high priest had under the old covenant. Because he could go in the holy place pretty much any day. He could be all around the tabernacle anytime he wanted to. But he could only go into the presence of God with great fear for his own life and one day a year. But you, as a believer in Jesus,

you have something far superior. You have access to the presence of God. And so he said, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. In May of last year, there was...

an event that was held for charity where Tim Cook, who is the CEO now of Apple, previously of course it was Steve Jobs, but now Tim Cook has taken over and he is running Apple. And so in an attempt to raise some money for charity, they held an auction and whoever won the auction would get to have a coffee meeting with Tim Cook. Okay.

And so people were bidding. And, you know, again, the amount that was raised would go to charity. But whoever won, they would get to sit down and have this opportunity to have coffee with Tim Cook, to have a discussion with this man who runs, you know, the richest company in the world, basically. And so the bids came in.

We don't know who actually the winner was, but we do know the price. It was $610,000 that someone paid to have a 10-minute coffee meeting with Tim Cook. It's pretty impressive. But listen, what we have in the opportunity to meet with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, with the creator of the heavens and the earth, not just for 10 minutes, once in a lifetime, but

Not just for 10 minutes once a year like the high priest. What we have in relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ is far more valuable. It is incredibly valuable. You have access to God. You can talk to him. He wants to talk to you. He wants to speak to you and lead you and guide you. This is the reality.

And so these Jewish believers, they were thinking about going back to the old covenant and the author of Hebrews is saying, you guys are crazy. What we have in Christ is far better. You could go to some old system or you could go to some system that you create, but it will never compare to having access to the Father by faith in Jesus Christ.

Well, continuing on here in chapter 10, in verse 24, he says, also let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. And so he says, not only do you have access to God and that's important, but also think about the people around you and make sure that you consider them to build them up and to help them experience all that God has for them. And then in the final portion, verse 26 through 39, he says, don't cast away your confidence.

Here he goes on into another warning. In verse 26, he says, If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

And so now we kind of continue our list of warnings that are found in the book of Hebrews. I'm not going to go into the ones that we looked at last week. But here we have another warning against willful sinning. The idea is a persistent, continual warning.

not engaging in sin. It's like a deliberate choice. It's not you stumbled. It's not that you stumbled frequently or regularly, but it's a deliberate choice. This willful sinning. You decide I'm going to do what I want to do and I don't really care what God has to say about it. And the author of Hebrews warns us against that and says, look, if that's your heart, that's your attitude, well then what you have is a

certain fearful expectation of judgment. He goes on to say, look, if the people who rejected Moses' law died without mercy, how much worse do you think it is for us to trample the Son of God underfoot? For us to disregard and throw out the sacrifice that Jesus made? It's much worse is the point. And so he warns us against

This willful continuing in sin. It's a real warning. It's meaningful and there's real danger. Throughout the Bible, you'll find that the message for people in sin is always the same. Repent. The Bible never approaches the issue of someone in sin and says, hey, just relax. It's going to be okay. There's grace. No, whenever there's an issue with people in sin, the Bible gives the same message. Repent. Repent.

God judges sin. He won't allow it to continue. He's going to deal with it. And for us to make a deliberate choice to go back to sin or to dive into sin or to continue in sin when we've experienced his grace, well, don't think that we will get away with anything. We need instead to repent.

He says in verse 30, for we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people. And then notice verse 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It's a fearful thing. A lot of times we try to kind of water down these things and I understand that. And there's no need to scare people who don't need to be scared. But it's often been said, the job of the preacher is to afflict the comfortable people

and comfort the afflicted. In Christ, you have access to the very presence of God by faith in Jesus Christ. But if you are deliberately living a lifestyle of sin, well, you need to be fearful. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You can experience the fullness of his grace and his blessings and his presence and relationship with him. And he has great, incredible things in store for you.

But you need to enter into his presence. And if you run away from his presence, don't think that you can run away from his presence and experience all the blessings that he has for you. Running away from him, that is willful sinning, it brings judgment to us. It brings discipline. It brings chastening. It brings scourging. And so he warns against willful sin. Well, now we go into Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 39 is the key verse.

And he says, and all these, now he's talking about all the different people that he's mentioned here in this, what we call often the hall of faith. He says, all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise.

And so here this chapter is all about faith, what it is and those who had it. And he's working his way towards Hebrews chapter 12 where he's going to put into practice or call us to apply these things that he's teaching us. And so he starts out in verses 1 through 3 and he says that faith is the substance of things hoped for. That's in verse 1. He says it's the evidence of things not seen.

I like to define faith a little bit differently. It has the same meaning, but I simplify it a little bit for my own self. My definition of faith is obedience to God at his word. That is, you obey God even when you can't see God.

what he's called you to do or the results of what he's called you to do. Even when I don't understand why God says this is what you should do or don't do that, when I can't see it, when I can't understand it, but I do it anyways, that's what faith is. If you hear from God and you read God's word and God says do this and you go, oh yeah, that makes sense. That's the right thing to do. That's what I need to do.

Well, that doesn't require really faith. That's not the substance of things hoped for, the things that are unseen. That's doing what you think is good, doing what you think is right. But our ways are different than God's ways. And what God will call us to do is going to be different than what we would choose to do on our own. And so we are called to forgive our enemies. And that's not something we would do on our own.

We're not only called to forgive, but to do good to them who persecute us and spitefully use us. And that's not what we would do on our own. We're called to live uprightly. We're called to, well, there's lots of things that we're called to. And obedience to that is faith. That's what faith is all about. Doing what God has said, even when we don't see it or understand it.

And so the rest of this chapter now, he's going to be giving examples of faith. And you can see this in action because each of these examples is an example of someone who did what God asked them to do. It's an action. They're doing what God told them to do. Whether they agree with it, whether they understand it, they're offering things, they're waiting in places, they're moving in certain directions, they're building things because that's what God told them to do.

And so in verses 4 through 16, he says, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah died in faith. And so he gives us some examples, but he says that they died continuing in their faith. Now verse 6 is one of those key verses in the Bible that we often refer to. It says, but without faith, it is impossible to please him.

And so faith, it's obedience to God at his word. It's the substance of things that are hoped for. And without this faith, it's impossible to please God. You have to believe God at his word and do what he says or you will never please God. It's impossible.

But if you do, there's also a promise. He rewards those who diligently seek him. And so as you seek the Lord and you hear from him and you do what he says, he's going to reward you for that. There's great reward in that. And he gives us examples. Abel. Abel offered the sacrifice that God said to offer. While Cain, his brother, offered a different sacrifice.

And so he had faith. He did what God said to do. And he gives more examples. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. But the point is not just the examples and that they did what God told them to do. The point is in verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

That promise that's there in verse 6 that God rewards those who diligently seek him, that's a promise. And we don't always see the fulfillment of that promise in our lifetime. They didn't get to see the full reward that God had for them. And when they died, they had not yet received that full reward. They hadn't yet received all that God had told them that he was going to do.

So they died in faith. They died continuing to believe and not having received the promises. Now I'd like to encourage you to keep in mind the author of Hebrews is working towards Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. Which are again famous verses that believers know. And as he works towards Hebrews chapters 1 and 2,

He says, look, the people of God who went before you embraced the promises of God and they lived differently than the world. And so follow their example. They were in a lesser covenant. Their experience, their relationship with God was lesser than what you have. You have full access to God, but these walked with God and they were convinced or they were committed to be strangers and pilgrims

On the earth. And they could have went back and lived like the world. But they believed God. And it changed their life. And so they lived differently. Because they did what God called them to do.

Well, then in verses 17 through 40, he says, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Rahab obtained a good testimony through faith. And so now he gives some more examples. Again, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, and then he goes on and on and say, you know, I can't even list all the people who had faith.

Now again, he's taking us, he's working us towards Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. He's saying, look, these are the people of God. They embraced the promises of God. And as a result, they lived differently. So follow their example. He gives the example of Abraham when he was tested and he offered up Isaac on the offering in Genesis chapter 22. And it tells us there that Abraham had determined, well, if God told me to sacrifice my son...

And he also told me that my son was going to be the one through whom he would fulfill the promise that I would have many descendants. Well, it must be then that God's going to raise him from the dead. This is really incredible. I mean, if you allow yourself to really absorb, digest and consider what Abraham did, he's like, okay, God said, I'm gonna have a multitude of descendants through Isaac. And then God said, sacrifice your son Isaac. Okay.

So Abraham's like, I don't understand it, but I'm going to do it. That's faith, obedience to God at his word. And he concluded, well, I don't understand it. It doesn't make sense, but here's my best guess. I'm going to sacrifice Isaac and then God's going to raise him from the dead and then fulfill the promise. And I will have a multitude of descendants through Isaac. That is radical faith. That's the example that we have. And the point here of the author of Hebrews is that

Follow his example. He had a lesser experience with God. Connection to God. Access to God. It was reduced. It was lesser because Christ had not yet come. The Holy Spirit was not yet given without measure. Follow his example. Let God's word change your life. Do what it says.

Obey God at his word. That's faith. Now, faith is not only about victories. In verses 35, 36, and 37, it talks about others who had trials, others who had scourgings and mockings and chains and imprisonment. Others were tortured and would refuse to be delivered from it, that they would be martyred, that they would obtain a better resurrection. They were stoned. They were sawn into pieces.

All in faith. Believing God at his word. That yes I'm enduring these difficulties. This hardship. This persecution. This torment. But God has promised something greater. And so in their faithfulness to God. In their obedience to God. They accomplish a good testimony. That's what verse 39 says. They accomplish a good testimony.

And so we look back to Hebrews chapter 11 and we call it the hall of faith. These are people who believed God. These are people to model our lives after. That they received from God. They heard from God. And they did what God called them to do at great expense. At great cost. But recognizing it's worth it because of the promises that God has given.

Now throughout our time in the book of Hebrews, we've been looking at some of the key Old Testament references because it's rooted in the Old Testament as he calls these Jewish believers back to right relationship with God by faith in Jesus. And so here in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 16, it says, but they desire a better that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them.

And this goes back to the promises that God had given to Abraham and then Isaac and Jacob, that God would establish them as an everlasting, or for them an everlasting possession in the land of Canaan, that he would establish this place for them.

In Hebrews 11, 28, it talks about the Passover and how they, by faith, kept the Passover. And that's a reference back to Exodus chapter 12, where God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt on the day of Passover as he instituted this feast of Passover and delivered them from the death of the firstborn. Well, now Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 is the key verse.

And so here in verses 1 and 2, he encourages us, run the race that's set before you. Looking to Jesus in verse 2, the author and finisher of our faith. But Jesus,

He says, because we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. What's he talking about, this cloud of witnesses? This is a reference back to Hebrews chapter 11. And he says, look, you have all these men and women of God who've gone before you. And they believed God. They were obedient to him at his word. And they were faithful until the end. They crossed the finish line.

And you have many men and women of God who've gone before you, who've experienced worse things than you, who've taken greater steps of faith than you. You have so many who've gone before you and were faithful. And so since that's the case, let's follow their example. And let's lay aside the weights. Whatever slows you down from obeying God at his word. You know, when you're preparing to run a race,

you might wear weights because you're building up that resistance, that endurance. You're building up that strength. But when you're in the actual race, you lay those weights aside. And so that's the point is, well, we are in the race. We're not practicing. We're in the real thing. We're in the real event. And it's time to lay aside anything that hinders your obedience to God.

And if there's anything that's hindering your obedience to God, you need to lay it aside. You need to cast it off as well as the sin which so easily ensnares us. And there's a distinction there because not all weights are sin. There are things that you could be involved in that it's not a direct violation of the word of God, but it hinders you from obeying God. And so it's a weight. It holds you back.

And so you need to let go of the sin, the direct things that God has declared. Hey, don't live in this way. Don't practice those things. Lay those things aside, but also lay aside anything else that keeps you from obedience. You have a cloud of witnesses who've crossed the finish line, who've set you a good example that this can be done. You can live a life of faith. You can do what God has called you to do. You can be faithful to him.

And so he says, look to Jesus. That's what they did. The author and finisher of our faith. And Jesus is the example. He, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. And so put your eyes on Jesus. The joy who sat before you. And endure whatever it is that is before you. Endure. Don't give up. Persevere. Carry on. He is sat down now at the right hand of the throne of God.

He's the example. He was faithful till the end. And we have many examples, a cloud of witnesses who've told us. The idea of this cloud of witnesses, it's a cloud of people testifying. You can live the life that God has called you to live. You can do it. You're going to fail. You're going to mess up. All these cloud of witnesses, you can look at the failures and the ways that they messed up. For sure, it's going to happen.

And yet, you can live the life that God has called you to live. You can get back up and walk with God. You can go forward in what he's called you to do. You can endure whatever it is that he is allowing you to experience. You can do it. You've got a cloud of witnesses, a multitude of people testifying. You can do it by looking unto Jesus.

By following his example, by holding fast to him, by entering into the presence of God and staying there, by walking in relationship with God. Well, he goes on in verses 3 through 11. He says, if you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. Now, chastening, the idea refers to training up children, which includes discipline or scourging, chastisement, but it also includes instruction.

And so if God is instructing you or if God is disciplining you, he's treating you as he does children. He says in verse 6, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and even scourges every son whom he receives. Now, you and I as believers, when we experience affliction or difficulty or chastening, we think it's because God's angry at us. But he says, no, no, this is God's love. God loves you. Well, it doesn't feel like God loves me. Well, it might not feel like it, but God loves you.

Just as a child in the midst of chastening would say, it doesn't feel like dad loves me, mom loves me. Now later on they recognize, yeah, that was love. But in the midst of it, it doesn't feel like love, but it's because of God's love. He says in verse 11, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. God's training you and your life

is his training program. And you think, well, you know, if God loved me, then he'd let me go hook up with this other person because then I'd be really happy and I think God just wants me to be happy and so I'm going to go hook up with that other person because it'll be much better if I'm not with this person. God says, no, no, this is my training program for you. I put you with that person. It's because I love you.

Now, if I had this job instead of that job, then it would be much better off. And if God really loved me, he'd give me that job instead of this job. And God says, no, I love you. And that's why I gave you this job. And yeah, maybe not as joyful for the present, but it's part of my training plan. I'm training you up. I'm raising you as a child because I love you and I'm taking care of you. And you might not be very excited about it. You might not feel like I love you, but I do. And that's the point.

And so he says, look unto Jesus. He trusted God through crucifixion. You can trust God through whatever you're experiencing, whatever difficulty, whatever affliction, whatever high or whatever low. Verses 12 through 17, he encourages us to pursue holiness. I like verse 12. He says, therefore strengthen the hands which hang down in the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet.

So that what is lame may not be dislocated but rather be healed. He's talking to people who are beat up. He says you're beat up. And your hands are hanging down. And your knees are feeble. And you're kind of just slouching. You're kind of just like. And you're in danger. You're going to collapse. Because you're just being weak. But make straight paths for your feet. Enter into the presence of God.

Raise up those hands that are hanging down. Strengthen your feeble knees because, listen, God's working in your life. He loves you. So pursue holiness. Pursue peace with all people, he says in verse 14, and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Stop walking around like you're some victim. You're not a victim. God loves you. He's working in your life. He's accomplishing what he wants to accomplish. So strengthen yourself in the Lord.

Trust in him. Believe in him and make straight paths for your feet. That idea of straight paths for your feet. I think it's an interesting one because sometimes we know where we're supposed to be, right? Sometimes we kind of like the pity party that we have and so we just take our time getting there. We take our time getting to the right attitude. We know the right attitude that we're supposed to have but I'm not ready to give up this pity party. I'm just having such a great time.

And people aren't feeling as sorry for me as I think that they need to feel for me yet. So I'm not done with it yet. So I'm going to take a crooked path. I'm going to go this way and that way and I'll get there. I know where I'm supposed to be, but no, he says, no, make straight paths for your feet. You know what God's calling you to do. You know what God has said. You know where your heart's supposed to be. You know how to have access to God. And so go straight there. Don't delay. Don't delay.

Don't get distracted. Don't prolong things, but go experience what God has for you in his presence. In verses 18 through 24, he says, you have come to the city of the living God. Again, he goes back to what we have in Christ is far superior. In verse 18, he says, you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest.

Referring back to when God descended on Mount Sinai. That was a mountain that could be touched. And that was an incredible experience. If you try to picture yourself being there with the presence of God on the mountain. I mean that was amazing. But the author of Hebrews says but you've come to something better. Verse 22. You've come to Mount Zion. The city of the living God. The heavenly Jerusalem.

to an innumerable company of angels. Then verse 24, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. You've come to Jesus. It's far superior. So strengthen your hands that hang down. Raise them up. Strengthen your feeble knees. Don't walk around defeated like a victim. Build yourself up because what you have is incredible and what God has for you is amazing.

Then in verses 25 through 29, he says, let us have grace to serve God. Since we're receiving this kingdom that cannot be shaken, since we have these incredible promises, these things that are incredible and amazing, he says, let's have grace by which we may serve God. Now all this talk about God being fearful, then it's like, woo, you know, stay away. No, no, let's have grace. Grace is God's goodness towards us. And we have that.

We have God's grace by faith in Jesus Christ, the veil. And so we don't have to stay away from God out of fear. We should stay away from sin out of fear. But we don't have to stay away from God out of fear. Let's have grace and let's serve God. Let's walk with God. Let's be with him. There's a couple key references here in Hebrews 12 to the Old Testament. In verse 5 and 6,

He says, And so this is a reference back to Proverbs chapter 3 verses 11 and 12. And then in Hebrews 12, 25 through 27, he refers back to Haggai chapter 2,

Verse 6 and 7, the Lord says, There's going to be a shaking of the heavens and the earth. And what we put our hope in and trust in should not be the things of this earth because these things are not going to last. That's the point.

We put our hope, we put our trust in eternity and the things that God has promised for us. Now there's a couple warnings here, the final warnings of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 through 17, he warns us against falling short of the grace of God. And that specifically is in verse 15. He says, look carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. Look around, help people not fall short of

Help your brothers and sisters around you. How do you fall short of the grace of God? Well, you would understand that better if you remembered how does a person experience God's grace? It's by faith, by believing in Jesus, by holding fast to his finished work. You experience the grace of God. And so when you're not holding fast to Jesus, you fall short.

You fall short of the grace of God. When you're trying to approach God by your own works or by some legalistic system or by some religious system, you fall short. In Galatians chapter 5 verse 4, Paul's writing to those who have gone to legalism. He says, you have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace.

When you try to approach God on the basis of what you do or what you haven't done, you fall short of the grace of God. We need to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ and help people not fall short. Help people hold fast to Jesus.

Well, there's also a warning against refusing God in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 25 through 29. In verse 25, he says, see that you do not refuse him who speaks. And again, he calls back to the Old Testament. Look, if they refuse God in the Old Testament and they experienced great judgment and they didn't escape, then don't think that you can escape if you refuse God, if you refuse to do what he says.

It's a real warning. There's real danger. He's calling us to respond to God, not to refuse God. Well, now chapter 13, the final chapter of Hebrews and the final chapter this evening. Verse 15 is the key verse. He says, therefore by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. In verses one through six, he says, let your conduct be without covetousness.

Here in this portion, he kind of gives a bunch of different commands, not necessarily all, you know, tied to one theme. He talks about brotherly love and that needs to continue. He tells them to entertain strangers because they might be entertaining angels. He tells them to remember prisoners, to honor marriage. Marriage is honorable and the marriage bed is undefiled. And then he tells us to be content.

Because God is with you and he will never leave you nor forsake you. So he's going to meet your needs. So be content with what you have.

Then in verses 7 through 17, he says, Jesus suffered outside the gate and so let's go to him. Again, there's different things that are mixed into these verses. In verse 7, he talks about remembering those who rule over you, that is spiritual authorities, who have spoken the word of God to you. And he says, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct. So those who've spoken the word of God to you, look at their life, look at the result of their life.

And then follow their example if it's according to the word of God. Follow their example if it is in accordance with what God has declared. Because he goes on in verse 8 to say, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So continue on that. He hasn't changed. And his point then in verse 9 is, don't be carried about by strange doctrines. So don't think, well, you know, this is 2,000 years after Jesus. Things have changed quite a bit. God has new ways.

He's going to be doing something different. He says, no, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Remember those who have spoken the word of God to you. For us, this is very easy. Go back to the word of God. The Old Testament, the New Testament, the people of God, the people called by God to speak forth the word of God have delivered to us the word of God. And so go back to that. It hasn't changed. Access to God is still the same. There's not a new way to access God.

salvation it's still the same there's not a new way of salvation jesus is the same yesterday today and forever then in verses 18 through 25 he says may god make you complete in every good work and he concludes kind of in a usual way that we've seen you know different letters from paul and we'll continue to see as we go forward in james and such he asked for prayer in verse 18 and 19

He says to greet all those who rule over you and all the saints. He says those from Italy greet you and grace be with you all. Amen. I think verse 22 is interesting. He says, I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation for I have written to you in few words. I wonder what a long letter from this author would look like. This has been a meaty book.

Man, there is things to chew on. There's things you're not going to get the first time around or the second time around. There's going to be things that you wrestle with. But the bottom line is that Jesus is better. And what he offers to you is far better than what the Jewish people had in the old covenant. Far better than what the high priest had in the old covenant. What Jesus offers you is far better than any other religious system or any other attempt to approach God.

It's the same today as it was then. Jesus gives us access to God by faith in his finished work. And so the author of Hebrews gave us several exhortations throughout the book. These are exhortations to experience what God has for you. He says to enter into his rest. Don't try to work

to please God. Don't try to work to have access to God, but rest in the work that Jesus accomplished. He says to hold fast our confession of Jesus. Let's go on to perfection. Let's grow. Let's come to maturity in Jesus Christ. Let's draw near to the Father, entering in to his presence.

talking with him, hearing from him, walking with him, inviting him into every aspect in every part of our life, holding fast the confession of hope and considering one another, helping each other experience these things too and making sure we don't go astray. We're in this together. Help one another enter into the presence of God and not wander off. He says, let's run with endurance. You have need of endurance. You have need of perseverance. Press on. Don't give up.

It's tempting to give up. It's tempting to compromise because it's difficult or you're tired. But run with endurance. Have grace to serve God. God extends to you great grace so that you can walk with him and honor him and do what he's called you to do. Let's bear the reproach of Jesus.

There is a reproach of Jesus. As the sin sacrifices were taken outside of the camp, Jesus was crucified outside of the camp. And you and I as followers of Jesus are always going to be outside of the camp. If you want to be accepted and, you know, the most popular, if you want to be loved by everybody, you're not going to be a follower of Jesus. Bear the reproach. And there's going to be mocking. There's going to be ridicule. There's going to be persecution. Bear the reproach.

It's the reproach of Jesus. And let's offer the sacrifice of praise. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks. Thank God for what he has done. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for your great work.

And the incredible access that you have accomplished for us. We thank you for the amazing blessings of getting to know you. Of you working in us and leading us and guiding us and training us. Lord, that we might experience the best eternity that's possible. And God, we pray that you would help us to have faith. To follow the examples of the men and women who've gone before us. Who have finished well.

I pray that you would help us to raise up our hands, to strengthen our knees, to trust in you and do what you've called us to do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.