Hebrew Shadows, Substance, and Salvation — Hebrews 9-13

0:00 I wanna take a few minutes to go through, and I'm gonna make it quick, but there's there's also a reason for this. And I think one way, the the point of this for the author, and I know at some point, I'm gonna mistakenly say Paul because the more I read, I just think Paul. There's so many things that make me think Paul as I read it, but that's that's not important. We know it comes from from God, number one. That's his inspired word.

0:24 So we can be confident in that. But the point that the author is trying to make throughout Hebrews is that there's a better way now. There's a better man, there's a better way, and you need to follow him. Okay? And so I think if we go through that, the goal today would be to do the same thing that that the author was trying to do which is to take us through this process of of showing, demonstrating that Jesus is everything we need and I think that's kind of the bottom line for Hebrews, isn't it?

0:55 That Jesus is all we need. And that's where it finishes. So so we're going to do this quickly, as quickly as I can, and then get into chapter 13. I titled this, Hebrew Shadows, Substance, and Salvation Is that clear for everybody? Yes.

1:22 I'm wearing glasses now so I don't know. Hebrew shadows, substance, and salvation and and to kind of give a little explanation of that, the I I've tried to as this whole process has gone through, I've tried to put my mind or get my head in the same place as the as the Jews at this time as the Hebrews and and it's easy for us sometimes sit back and judge. How would these people who have come to this this great knowledge of salvation? How would these people who have finally found out that all the years of sacrifices, all the things that they've done were just a picture and that's where the shadow comes from. A shadow of what the reality that was to come in in in the person of Jesus Christ.

2:13 Why wouldn't they just be willing to give that up? It should be an easy thing to give up. Can you imagine the work, the ritual, the ceremony that was involved with Judaism? Why wouldn't that be easy to give up? For for, you know, for whatever reason but you know, we see the same thing in the world today.

2:30 Why do people not want to come to the lord Jesus? Think of all the different reasons. There's lots of different reasons, isn't there? But or that they would give at least but one of the things is, they don't want to give up what they were, right? They're in a pattern of this is who I am.

2:46 This is what I'm about and I don't want to give that up and when you think about the Hebrews, they had been brought up through this process where this is how we do it. This is how we approach god And to give up the ritual and the ceremony was not just difficult for themselves personally, to get out of the habit of doing it, but it was difficult because they were going to get blasted by everybody around them. They were going to be, in some cases, disowned by their families. They were going to be that guy that was walking down the street where everybody whispered, they hoped, just whispered, there's a Christian, that guy's a Christian, that guy's one of those, he's fallen Christ. He's a...

3:23 And and you want to think that some, you know, people think that we're strange to be Christians now. Imagine that you are a Christian then because Jesus had just been there. You know, I mean, this was a recent thing and so, you know, it's easier for us, I think, in some ways, to believe because we have god's word, we can map out, we can look from beginning to end and if you've done that, if you read through the scriptures and you've looked at god's plan from the beginning and that's what drives me crazy about people on TV, right? That just use snippets and say, well, this is the god of the old testament. This is god of new testament.

3:54 We don't none of it makes any sense. If you really read through it and you can tell those people haven't studied it. If you study it, there is a plan from day one for us. Plan from day one to the end through eternity and it's an obvious plan. If you get it, if you want to get it, and that's part of the process.

4:14 Do you want to get it? But for these people, and I try to imagine this, what would it be like for me if I had been brought up in a Jewish household, I came to know Christ and or I came to an understanding at least, maybe not a full belief, not a full faith but I came to an understanding of Jesus Christ and it kind of made sense to me and boy, it sounded good to not have to to to live by the law anymore that I could that I was free from that. Boy, that sounded great but it means your family's going to reject you. The people around you are going to hate you. You might be ostracized by the the entire community.

4:48 And your life is at risk. I mean, we worship and someone might make fun of you for being a Christian, you're a Bible thumper, whatever all those terms that they use for. That's fine. We gotta deal with that. Oh, boy.

4:59 They faced death. As Stephen, stoned to death, right? Peter hung or or nailed to a cross upside down or whatever the, you know, there's there's these guys died for what they believed and they knew that there was a chance thrown to the lions. How many we've seen, you know, how many times you know, Christians were thrown to the lions. In Rome, we told the story.

5:22 They're they're hung on crosses and used as streetlights. They burned them to use them as streetlights. This isn't, these guys, your faith was much, it's, it took a lot of faith to go ahead and go through what these people were going to go through and so, we look at it and we say, how could they give up what was good for, you know, the old stuff? Why would they want to go back to that? But but they looked at it.

5:47 Life was a lot easier doing that even with all the ritual and all the ceremony and all that sacrifice and bringing my animals and getting them going through that whole process. It was easier than what I have now and and that's helped me as I've read through this. That's helped me a lot to think about that and I think there's a lot of application for us in that. So, the first thing, I'm going to go through this kind of quickly and and it doesn't go exactly chapter by chapter because there is overlap. It it you know, one chapter melds into another and and it wasn't broken up as some people say maybe the way you would want it and everybody, if everybody in this room put together their own outline or you know, of what of Hebrews and pick the verse because that's all I did was I just picked a few verses that I thought stood out to me that that gave a summary of each part.

7:06 You have your, see, I got you in the hierarchy there, right under humans. Then, humans and then and then angels and then, you know, god the father and the holy spirit that that's kind of that hierarchy. Well, the first thing was to prove that Jesus was was greater than the angels because he wasn't just some guy that came to the Earth and that was the problem for some of the Hebrews is that here, this was a human and you're saying this guy is, you know, we're giving this guy status of deity. Come on. Come on.

7:37 That's not but no, it was demonstrated throughout the New Testament or the Old Testament that the son of god was coming, that the Messiah was coming. One of the challenges for the Jews is that they were looking for someone to save them from the Romans. Deliver us from our enemies and they're looking for this mighty king to come down and conquer and and establish Israel as a great nation again and all those types of things, right? That's what they're looking for. What they didn't understand that that's not, that wasn't the problem.

8:05 Their station in life wasn't the issue. Once again, applicable to us. Our station in life isn't the issue. It's our sin that separates us from god. It is our sin that separates us from god and that's what the Israelites, they they didn't have that figured out.

8:20 So, when some guy came meekly walking across the earth, sharing you know, testimony to his father, healing the sick, doing those things, that's not what they're looking for. No, that can't be the guy. The guy we're looking for is going to conquer the Romans and set us up as, you know, that's the Messiah and that was the Messiah because that wasn't the plan and if they paid attention, it never was. It never was the plan. The plan was always to bring us back into a relationship with god, right?

8:54 So, he was greater than the angels and that's why he had to be made lower than the angels. He had to be made lower than the angels. That means like us. He had to be made lower than the angels so that he could suffer death in human form, in bodily form. And so we see that in chapter two.

9:13 And then that brings up that if you understand that Jesus came to the earth in bodily form to suffer and to die for our sins, then how how can we neglect so great a salvation? How can we? It's a great question. And then the whole thing with Moses. Imagine, we don't have this in Christianity.

9:35 We don't have that guy that we look to as kind of the human representation of what Christianity is all about. We don't have that because we look at Christ. Christ is the head of the church. Christ is what we are all about. I mean, you look at Hebrews.

9:53 I I that's why all these headings are Jesus. They're greater than Moses. Jesus, greater than, I mean, it was all about Jesus, right? And and that's what we are about. I hope, right?

10:02 In in most cases, we are all about Jesus. That's what brings us together. That's why we do what we do. It's all about Jesus but for them, they looked at Moses and Abraham and those guys. These were the patriots.

10:13 These were, you know, these were, it was, it was huge and when Jesus came and said, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm going to get rid of the law because of me. What because of what's going to happen here, we're not going to have any use for the law anymore. I'm going to destroy the temple and build it in three days. All these things that he said that made them crazy, think about what his accusations were at his trial. He claimed to be the son of god.

10:37 He claimed to, you know, that he was going to destroy the temple and raise in three days. All these things that they brought up in his trials. If you look in the gospels, they were all what he said about himself and that's what made him mad. He said, he was going to be that guy and so for them to this idea that that Moses who had written, you know, who had provided them with the law through, of course, from god but through Moses, he was looked up to as this great, great man. But Jesus was greater, and we know that.

11:06 How do we know? Because even Moses, as great as he was as a human being, never entered the promised land, did he? Because of his sin. He didn't make it. That's where that final quote, so I swore my wrath, I shall not enter my rest.

11:20 That included Moses, didn't it? It included Moses. So Jesus was greater than him as well. Look at, we're already through one overhead, one slide. It's going well.

12:17 Anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience and seeing that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of god, let us hold fast our confession and then finally, and let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. That was something that couldn't be done under the old system, could it? Directly. Couldn't be done. Couldn't approach god in that way.

12:45 And so, now we have this heading. Now, this takes a few chapters to go through but we have Jesus as the better high priest. And it's a comparison. There's a couple of comparisons. First of all, it's a comparison between the earthly high priest and the heavenly high priest overall, but then we have later the comparison between the order of Melchizedek, which is what Jesus compared to, and then the Aaronic order as well.

13:17 And so the high priest that would offer sacrifices, and we go, you have to you have to keep in this in mind. We're going get into this a little bit later that that blood was necessary to cover sin and it was a temporary process for for the for the Hebrews. What they did in sacrificing animals were told could never take away sin. They couldn't take away sin but they did that to put themselves in a place of temporary purity where they could then worship god, right? And so, they would go through this process of sacrificing animals and I and I've tried to visualize what that was like.

13:53 If you go back and read Leviticus, because it's really a fun read, isn't it? It's a fun read. It's one of those light hearted reads. But I've tried to go back and really look at it deeper and try to figure out, you know, what did this mean? What did this mean?

14:08 I've luckily, I have this nice table in my Bible. It gives me explains things because I'm just not that smart but as I look at this the the table and I read through it, there was all this ritual and this offering meant this and you you splatter the blood here and then you this you can eat and this you take outside the gate and you burn all of it and you you know and there are all these different rules for all these different sacrifices that they had to do. And the gist of it is that the high priest that would offer those sacrifices was just as guilty as the people that he was sacrificing for, right? There was no way he could, you know, and that's just one of the things that you see in the New Testament as we look at the priest that that that that were so vehemently against what Jesus had to offer. They didn't think of that.

14:59 There wasn't the humility necessary. I imagine this process, if you had to kill the number of animals that they did, first of all, Israel is not cold. It's hot, right? And I imagine the amount of blood that was splattered there every day and that these guys, you talk to butchers like people who are, you know, do that for a living and what what that does to your hands when you have your hands in that all day but they were killing animals all day long and sacrificing and going through this process and it should have been a process by which every day you were humbled because you're reminded daily about sin and your own sin, right? It's like when we come to the first meeting, we break bread and we we drink the cup.

15:38 To me, it's always a humbling experience to remember what Christ went through for me and knowing my own heart how, you know, that I can never measure up on my own. Can't do it and they had to realize that as well and they were earthly priest and they were just as sinful as everybody else and in some cases, maybe even more because god's going to judge them pretty harshly, isn't he? For what they did and leading the people astray but that was the difference. Those priests went in. They were sinners.

16:06 They were sinners. It's a tough job. It was a tough job to kill all day long and it stung. It had to stink. That's why I say it was hot, you know?

16:13 Had to be, smell had to be just terrible and that was what they're reminded of every day. The stink and the stench of sin. I think it was pretty strong reminder. I think it's pretty powerful. But he had to offer those for himself.

16:28 So, what makes Jesus different? Well, Jesus called our great heavenly high priest, right? And he learned obedience by the things which he suffered and having been perfected and he was perfect before, wasn't he? He was the perfect, flawless sacrifice. He became the author of salvation to all who obey him.

16:48 See, what the priest did was temporary. Okay, your sins are covered. See you next week, right? Or see you in a year or whatever, you know, what the schedule was. I don't know.

16:59 You think about the number of people that came in. If you had to do it at least every year, what would that, what would the numbers be? If anybody calculate the numbers, what the what the population of Israel was at the time and then the number of animals we brought in on a daily basis to be sacrificed. So, everybody's doing it once a year. Then, you have some people that are a little more pious that probably come in more often.

17:18 I mean, the number of animals had to be, it had to be huge, astronomical to be able to try to temporarily cover that sin. But you get an idea from that, god's feelings towards sin. I think that's a great picture. If you try to imagine what that process was like, you get a pretty good idea of how how much god hates sin and how much it separates us from him. So, Jesus was our heavenly high priest.

17:44 What makes him different? He's eternal. He's the son of god. He was perfect in every way. He was perfect in every way and when he sacrificed, he didn't have to sacrifice for himself.

17:58 It was just for us. It was just for our sin. It wasn't for his sin because he didn't have any. So, it made him significantly different than the earthly high priest. So, then, there's this break in the action.

18:49 But I I agree that when I read this, when you read it, it sounds like something that somebody was, you know, talking through and and it could've been that. But he stops and gives this warning. Guys, listen to what you have here. You have Jesus who's higher than the angels, Jesus who is greater than Moses. You have Jesus who came to this earth in bodily form not because it made him last but because it it it allowed him in human form to die for us.

19:22 He's greater than Moses. He's greater than the high priest, the earthly high priest. He's of the order of Melchizedek. He hasn't gone and explained that yet but he's saying, be careful because you guys who should be able to know more the greater, the deeper things of god, you should be studying those things. Instead, you're still learning the milk because you've taken what was beautiful about about the salvation of Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross for your sins and you want to go back to the other stuff that are pictures and shadows of what the real thing is going to what it was.

19:55 You have the real thing and you want to go back to the fake. Don't do it. Don't go back and regress and I think about what is the what is the, you know, for us because this isn't, you can't read Hebrews and and and think, well, that's just for those Hebrews, those silly Hebrews that didn't get it. You know, it's not. It's, I mean, this applies to us, doesn't it?

20:13 Because you think about the things that we do. We have to be careful about ritual. You know, when I you know, I I've grown up in this church. I've never gone anywhere else. I mean, other than visiting, you know, places here and there and when somebody breaks bread, when when I go to another church and they break bread and they're in pews or whatever and it's all facing the front, I'm like, really?

20:34 This could be done? Is this, I'm, you know, I'm looking through my Bible. Are you sure? Are you sure you're allowed to because we sit in circle. That's what we do and we always have.

20:46 In in my memory, is there ever a time, dad, that we didn't sit in a circle? I don't think so, right? I mean, even at Birch Elementary School, I remember what's that. Sometimes, it has been a little squared off. Is there something about corners, 90 degree angles?

20:59 I'll I'll do my research. I'm sorry. I wasn't prepared but the but the fact is, you know, that to me, you know, that's what I know. We always sit in a circle. I love that.

21:10 I I still love it. I love, you know, looking across at the people I'm talking to and not, you know, look at the back of the head of the person standing up just to share or whatever. I like that but it's not. Right. Nor is the other way wrong and we have to be careful that we don't take things like that and make that this is what we're about because it's not what we're about.

21:32 That's legalism. That's stuff we want to we got to make sure we avoid. So if we were to ever have the chairs set up like this for the first service, if someone panicked and said, wait, we got to change these chairs and get them back to where there's, no, no, don't. We don't have to. We're good.

21:48 We can do it this way. We can. So we have to be careful about those things, right? But for these guys, man, there was a lot to it, wasn't there? It was hard for them to give up what they had done.

22:03 I have a thing here where I haven't looked at it yet, but I have a thing here where I highlighted the things I really wanted to point out and I'm wondering why I can't remember what it's highlighted. Hold on. I put it right on the overhead. That's why. Sorry.

22:22 I wonder how these moments of silence play online when people listen to it. Ah, okay. Anyway, I think we've covered it. Therefore, the the process of, you know, what what they want to do is leave leave the elementary principles of Christ, leave those, and let's move on to to the more important things, the more thing, the the the depth, okay? And I love that expression that we have an anchor this hope we have in Christ is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, in which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunners entered for us, even Jesus.

23:22 The guy is mentioned, Melchizedek is mentioned, the king priest of Salem mentioned briefly in Genesis, right? David briefly mentions them again and you want to talk about purpose? That it was for a reason back from Genesis, thousand year before to now. There was a reason why why why Melchizedek was mentioned and I think that's a cool thing. If you if you get into that aspect of studying it, I think it's cool that it goes back to this one mention and now, here we go.

23:49 This is important because the the priest, the ironic priest, they went in and they performed their sacrifices and their rituals and all those types of things but they too were sinners, weren't they? They were sinners. Now, so was Melchizedek but we don't have record of Melchizedek living, you know, birth or death or any of those things and so that was a representation of Christ. It was a picture of Christ but therefore, perfection over through the Levitical priesthood for under it, the people received the law, what further need was there for another priest to rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron. Now, why wasn't Jesus called according to the order of Aaron?

24:34 Well, that was under the law, right? The ironic priesthood was was called under the law. They were the ones given the law and they were the ones that that that instituted and saw those things through, okay? Jesus wasn't from that order. Melchizedek wasn't from that order, was he?

24:49 He wasn't from the ironic priesthood, from the law. So another picture of him. The law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there's the bringing of a better hope to which we draw near to God. For such a high priest, Jesus, we know, was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily as those priests offer sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the peoples.

25:21 But when he did it, he offered up himself perfect, holy, righteous, that's not the ironic priesthood. That's only Christ and that's why he's from a whole different order. He didn't have to offer up for himself. He was a better, better priest with a better covenant. And that's where this goes.

25:48 This is how I kind of tie together after... Once we get into chapter nine through... I believe it's the middle of chapter 10. Jesus, a better sacrifice for a better covenant. So first of all, we talk about the cost.

26:07 Okay? And that that's talked about here in in Hebrews nine. That according to law, almost all things are purified with blood and without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. As appointed for men to die once but after this, the judgment. We know that sin there was a cost to sin.

26:25 Our separation from god was the cost. And that means all things had that that the only thing, well, we know this from Romans six twenty three that the wages of sin are death and the gift of god is eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord. The wages of sin is death. That's for everybody. That's for everyone.

26:44 The wages of sin are death and the only way to come to god is through Jesus Christ. You know, that's a hard thing too this nowadays, right? The only way. People don't want to hear that. The only way.

26:58 But it is the only way. So, here's the promise. Behold, the days are coming, says the lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. If we read back in Jeremiah and I'm not going to because of time, I want to go back and read in Jeremiah 33 as well but but there was a promise made that this thing that the Christ was going to be that Christ was going to be sent, that that that a new covenant was going be made both with Israel but also offered up to us, the Gentiles.

27:32 And so the shadow, until then, we look at was that offering that the way that the way the law was carried out and the way that the sacrifices and all those things that the priests and the Jewish people followed, these were all pictures of what was to come. And that sacrifice, every time they killed a lamb, was a picture of what? Our Lord, right? It was a picture of our Lord. And every time they killed a calf, it was a picture of our Lord and the blood that he would shed.

28:02 And as they'd sprinkle it on the altar and wipe it on the horns of the altar and then take it out and burn it or whatever that process was, depending on what type of sacrifice, There was a process to it but in the bottom line, god was very clear over and over again where he says, sacrifice and offering is not what he wanted. That really didn't please him. It was sufficient for the time but it didn't really please him and so, what we have then is the fulfillment and that fulfillment was in Christ and we see there in chapter nine also but Christ came as high priest of the good things to come And skipping a little bit, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. He was the fulfillment of that. So, all that ritual that they went through, all that ceremony that they went through, it ended.

28:57 Boom. With Christ. Done. You don't need to keep doing that stuff. You don't need to keep doing it.

29:05 Isn't it funny too that AD seventy, right? Seventy AD, the temple is destroyed, and there's been brief periods of sacrifice since then, but really, basically, for the most part, sacrifice. God said, enough. You know, I sent you my son. Here's the sacrifice.

29:21 You you're you're continuing on like this matters. I don't know. I just, I think that's great. I think that's great how god said, okay, you're going to keep this up. Guess what?

29:31 I'm just, we're going to take it away. You look up some Jewish websites about why they don't sacrifice anymore. If you look up some and I I did. I went to a couple that talked about why they don't sacrifice and they say, well, we don't have a place to do it. Number one and then, number two, god really never really wanted sacrifice anyways.

29:49 That's pretty much what they say. God never really wanted that. He didn't really make him happy, so we figured we're justified in not doing it now, but we really don't have any place to do it. Yeah, God took that away. I think that's kind of incredible.

30:01 He said, Enough. You can stop doing that now. They never quite got the picture though, did they? Okay. So, Christ was a fulfillment of that.

30:48 They didn't think that. The Romans were their problem, right? Well, today, people say, you know, my problem is, I have a Lexus when I really want a beamer. You know what I mean? That's my problem or my problem is, you know, Westlake, we live in a tough place because people here have money.

31:01 They don't need god. They don't need god. I don't need that. They don't understand that their sin is what's separating them from god. Well, I'm going have to give up stuff.

31:09 I'm going to have to give up, you know, this and that. No. Christian is about liberty. You won't have to give up anything. You'll want to.

31:18 That's the difference. Amen. You'll want to because once you have the spirit of god living in you, you don't want to do some of those stupid things that you used to do. Unfortunately, some of the stupid things hang around too. You know what I mean?

31:30 You got to deal with that. But God teaches you through those and we'll share that story someday. But we all have our battles, don't we? But you don't want to be that person anymore. That's what's that's the beauty of it.

31:46 You don't want to be that person anymore. So, we look at it. Here's the judgment. First of all, chapter 10, I love this verse. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god.

31:54 It's great for us to remember that no matter what and it certainly, if you go back to second Corinthians five, it is the reason for Paul's ministry, is it not? He says in chapter five, you know, that his purpose is because our fear, we we minister because we fear god. We know what god... We know the terror of god, I believe it says exactly. Right?

32:13 The terror... Knowing therefore the terror of god, we share what we know. And I'm paraphrasing, believe me. Okay? But but there's judgment.

32:23 Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will be thought worthy, those who trampled the son of god underfoot. You know, that's a hard thing too, isn't it? You know, well, we're Americans. We can believe whatever we want, right? Yep.

32:36 You can. God's given you that freedom to believe whatever you want but guess what? When you deny it and we have people sitting, we we this could be the case right now. What the Hebrews are going through could be right here too. We have people that say all their lives that they've been Christian.

32:49 We've seen it before, haven't we? And then they walk away from god. Why? Probably because they never really knew him, right? They never really knew him and and so, we could have that right in this room.

33:00 But when you deny Christ and you deny what what he did on the cross, it's not just a choice. It's not just a choice. You are determining that you are going to reject god and accept his judgment because that's going to happen no matter what. That's as sure as we're standing here. One of the things I want to read in Hebrew or in Jeremiah talks about when he makes a covenant, when god makes a covenant, he he challenges Jeremiah.

33:26 He goes, I'll tell you what, he's talking about the covenant between with between him and David. If he says it, it's going to happen, right? If he says it's going to happen, that that covenant with with with David was made and Jeremiah, he challenges him. He says, listen, I'll tell you what, if you can stop day from becoming day and night from becoming night, then, my covenant with David won't won't happen. Go ahead.

33:48 You stop day and night, let me know how that goes, and that's how much chance you have of my covenant not taking place with what I say. What I say is going to happen with David and the Jewish people, it's going to happen. You have no chance of there's no chance that that's not going to happen. Well, there's no chance that we're not going to all stand before god someday. No chance.

34:08 We are. We are and we better know Christ as savior. We better be written in that book of life and we better have made him lord of our lives. Otherwise, it's bad news. So, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and then we have the challenge and that's where as we get into 11, chapter 11 talks about the, of course, the great people of faith, the great examples of faith.

34:53 I'm not going to panic. We're going to be able to go through this. We're going be able to do it. Okay. I should be panicking, but I'm not.

35:06 Great quote. Willie MacDonald. For the Hebrews leaving the old system for the new, right? This involved leaving Judaism for Christ. As the writer shows, this involved leaving shadows for substance, ritual for reality, the prior for the ultimate, the temporary for the permanent.

35:23 The one thing I think he leaves off is it's leaving death for life too, isn't it? It's leaving death for life. Should have been easier than it was, but it was pretty tough. Okay. I'm going to keep the whole thing up here, okay?

35:39 So, to study 13 and understand 13 where where Paul's coming from, you gotta go back to 12 because it's all coming together, right? And so, we have here at the end of 12. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom, now this is for Christians. Guys, this is for everybody in the room that knows Christ as savior and going to heaven and knows they're assured of that, okay? This is for us.

35:56 Therefore, since we're receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve god acceptably with reverence and Godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Great reminder, if you're unsaved, God is a consuming fire. Be afraid. Be very afraid. If if you're a Christian, God is consuming fire.

36:13 Be afraid. Have fear. Have reverence in what we do, right? And how we think about him. You think about, you watch TV nowadays, how callously people use god's name.

36:23 There's no there's no reverence for his name and that's why he tells us, don't use my name in vain. It's too important. Well, we don't remember that. So, there's six expectations for Christian living and this is where the practical side of today comes through. Okay?

36:39 Let brotherly love continue. That's all it says. That's verse one, right? Let let brotherly love continue. Many ways we could show that brotherly love.

36:47 Many ways and I could go back and I was going to read some verses and something else to demonstrate that but but we know what brotherly love is. The way we take care of each other, the way we treat each other, right? The way that we pray for each other, all those types of things. That should that should happen. Entertain strangers.

37:03 I don't know if this means just Christian strangers or non Christian strangers or everyone but I think it's applicable to both, isn't it? How we treat other people is their testimony to what we're about, right? And and that testimony can either bring people with us or or or chase them away. I've asked this question from up here before. What do what do people think out there?

37:27 What do they think of Christians when they think of Christians? And that to me is you know, what what words come to their minds and I'm going to tell you when you when you ask a lot of them, it's judgmental, hateful, you know, right? Isn't that a shame that some people have painted us that way by the way they're by the way they act in the name of Christianity? I guess every religion deals with that a little bit, don't they? I'm sure the Muslims aren't crazy about how they're depicted in some ways too.

37:53 Number three, remember to pray for and encourage those who are imprisoned. At our meeting for Sunday school, Sunday school in Awana, the party before Christmas, we read a story and I can't remember his name now. Does anybody remember his name? The guy was in Iran in the prison there. And I and the beautiful story that he wrote to his daughter, letter he wrote to his daughter on on what the purpose was for him to be in in in heaven or in prison right now and that this was god's plan that he was there for a reason and not to be upset about it but but to just accept it but boy, we should be praying, shouldn't we?

38:28 Especially, you think about it. I don't think there's a time in the history since the early church that that Christians have been persecuted the way they are right now. If I'm wrong, help me out. Is there a time? Right.

38:40 I think this is the persecution that we're facing right now and guys, it's not going to get better. We've been we've been saved from it a little bit. You know what I mean? It but it's going to hit here. It's not going to be it's not going to be like this forever where we come and meet here and not have to worry about what people are doing and whether or not we're going to get a bomb through the window or whatever the case may be.

39:00 At some point, I predict that we too will face that kind of persecution. And we have a government that's showing that right now, that they're willing to go that route, go that direction. Right? Be content. Jesus is all we need.

39:27 Now, if you, you know, a lot of these things, once again, you have to go back to the Hebrews. Oh, I skipped honor your marriage vows. Boy, I should probably go back to that, shouldn't Yeah. Sorry. But actually, be content goes back to that, to the couple of other things.

39:44 And I was going to tie that together a little bit. But for the Hebrews, you know, all the ritual and ceremony and all those things that they knew, they had to replace it with something, didn't they? You know, they wanted to replace it with something. But these are just the the the way to act decently and and represent Christ the right way both as a church and even outside the church. So I'll make it light.

40:06 But honor your vows in marriage. You know, I read a report recently that said that, and I don't know if this is true, because honestly, I bet you not one of us here has ever been surveyed. I'll bet, right? Because there's all these surveys that go out and nobody's ever asked me a single question. It's just hard for me to imagine that statistically that that's possible with millions of surveys.

40:24 Know, ask me once. But there was a thing that said that sixty over sixty percent of men who claim to be Christians, born again Christians, have some level of addiction to pornography. Right? That's a huge, that's a ridiculous number. And I don't, for one minute, pretend that that couldn't be an issue for people here.

40:47 And we are not great at talking about that, those types of things, are we? I mean, let's admit that those are uncomfortable things for us to talk about and his brother, and we have not ventured into that type of stuff. And sometimes there's good reason not to. Sometimes you bring attention to something that just creates a problem when there wasn't one there. And then sometimes, though, I wonder if we're not addressing problems even amongst each other that do exist.

41:15 And you see fifty percent divorce rates, there's reasons for that, and I think that that's one of them, right, that we don't hold the vow of marriage sacred. So we too should be aware of that. And then be content. All we need is Jesus, and there's a lot more to say about that, but I won't. Then pray for it, imitate those who rule over you.

41:42 Now I think this is, you know, I've read different things from different people. Some people said that this was specifically for the elders. Some people said it was for the people that brought them the gospel in the first place and the leaders of the church overall, not the local body. I think it applies to either. I think it applies to anyone, you know, that in our lives, we should be looking at those people that are doing the right things for God, living the right way for the Lord, and we want to imitate those things.

42:04 We want to imitate their faith because... And in the end, it says... Because look at the results. That's what it says at the end of that verse, if you look it up. Look at the results.

42:13 Look at what happens, right? And some of them are going to die for Christ. Some of them are going to be imprisoned for Christ. Some of them are going to be but it's for Christ. That's what you want to imitate.

42:22 That's a hard thing to wrap your brain around, right? Oh, I want to be a martyr. You know, not exactly what you want to do but that's that's the kind of faith that you want to emulate. That's the kind of faith faith I want to emulate. This verse, Jesus is saying today, yesterday, today, and forever.

42:41 Two ways of looking at this one. Now, I think it leads in. There was discussion about what this was really, what it tied into and I think it leads into everything after it but Jesus this is one of the things where you could be, this could be a comfort to you and it is, isn't it? To know that Jesus, our immutable lord is is the same yesterday, today, and forever that we can always count on him. His love doesn't change.

43:01 His grace doesn't change. These things don't change. It is who he is, right? These are attributes that describe who he is and what he is and what a comfort comfort to us, right? It's also a scary thing, isn't it?

43:16 Because a lot of people bring up the the god of the old testament. Well, he was a god of wrath and the god of the New Testament is a god of grace. Guess what? Same god. We talked about in the first meeting.

43:26 God's wrath in the Old Testament was abated by the death of his son but believe me, that wrath on sin is no, not even a smidgen less than it was ever. His hatred of sin is the same and and when when those legions are cast into the lake of fire, they'll know that his that his opinion of sin never changed and that sin can't be around him and it's only through the lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice that we have any chance of approaching him and that's a big part of Hebrews, isn't it too? That we got a chance to approach the holiest of holies behind the veil because of that blood of Christ. Incredible. So, our standing with god is established by grace.

44:10 I'm not even... No, it's we're not even going to read the chapter because of time. It's already five after and I'm going to quit here in a second. Christ is our altar. I would encourage you to read it.

44:18 I would definitely encourage you to read it because there's a lot of good stuff. In fact, I appreciate mister Morris's comments last week on this, that Christ suffered outside the camp, outside of Judaism, outside the traditional ceremonies of Judaism. He suffered outside of that. He was separated from that. And we should be too.

44:39 That's what chapter 13 tells us too, that we should be too. We should be outside the camp with Jesus. We should be what Jesus is, right? Which means rejection, which means separation, which means some of those things that are going to happen, that's part of the deal, but we have to be prepared to suffer for his name's sake. And there's a reason because our citizenship is in heaven.

45:03 This isn't our city. This isn't where we live. This is temporary, right? There's a lot of good stuff you can get into here. So if somebody else wants to nab this up too, I'd be happy to listen for next week.

45:15 But our citizenship is in heaven, so we don't have to worry about that. And you know that we're all priest, right? Feel like a priest? You're a priest, right? If you know the lord's savior, you're a priest and we know that.

45:31 The believer sacrifice. So, here's what we do to sacrifice the lord now. We don't have to kill anything. Well, that's all done. Jesus did it once and for all.

45:38 We're told that multiple times in Hebrews. Our heart shop, our heartfelt worship and praise, the fruit of our lips, that is our sacrifice to him. Our efforts to please him with our conduct and generosity, the way we treat other people, the way we treat other Christians, right? That is our sacrifice to him. And I included this even though some others didn't.

46:17 I think that's also a way that we sacrifice now for him, right? Sometimes, that's, no, I was going say, sometimes it's a real sacrifice. No, that's that's not true But the way we react, the way we respond, we have human leaders, certainly capable of failing, capable of doing wrong. But our responsibility is not to sit there and dwell on the imperfections of our human leadership. Our responsibility is to submit.

46:44 And when we submit to them, like a woman who submits to their husband is submitting to the Lord, not to that schlep that she's married to that snores at night and all that stuff. Right? She's not it's not about that. She's submitting to Christ. And when we submit to our elders here, our elders of the church, we are submitting to Christ.

47:03 And how does that make that a lot easier? Doesn't it? I love her. You guys are great. But but it does make it a lot easier, doesn't it?

47:09 To know that our submission is to the Lord, and then therefore, demonstrate that through our submission to the elders. Okay? So with that, let's close. And and the spirit was good because I got through the things that I really thought were important today too. So, let's give thanks for that time.

49:03 Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that we serve a high priest who is real, who is not any longer just a picture, not just a shadow, but we serve a risen savior who saved us from our sins, who came to this earth for one purpose, that was to die on the cross so that we could be closer to God, that we could be brought into the holiest of holies, boldly, entering, into a relationship with you. We thank you and praise you for that and we pray lord as we we go about through our next studies and and through future studies that we consider these things, what it means to be a part of the body of Christ, and how you would like us to reflect your love, your grace, in a positive way to those here in the church and throughout the world. We pray that you bless the time that we have today. We thank you in your name. Amen.