[0:00] Book of Hebrews in chapter 3. And on your way there, those are the symbols that we used several weeks ago to illustrate these events.
[0:19] ! And the majority of them there are dividing events based on what God was doing and a shift. And so then we put a timeline up and started with a simple one, Old Testament, New Testament.
[0:32] Last time we were together, two weeks ago, we spent the majority of the time discussing the New Testament and trying to help you see it's not just the books. So there was our layout of those events and those divisions in the Bible.
[0:49] And there we go. Last thing I want to get up on here was these. I think this is the last thing we did, I bet. Kind of putting some titles of the times, if you will, in between those events.
[1:03] And this is pretty sound and understood stuff. So what we're going to do this morning, though, is going to get a little heavier because we're dealing with doctrine. And doctrine, sound doctrine, needs to be established.
[1:16] It needs to be believed and understood. And you may feel like some of this stuff is over your head or it's not something that you pick up at all when you read through your Bible.
[1:27] You may just be like, what are you even talking about? I don't see that. I've never seen that before. Or I've never seen an issue or a need. And it's probably because you're just, you're reading through your Bible. And there's things that you just don't pick up.
[1:38] And it doesn't stand out to you. And that's normal. But when you're establishing doctrine and when you're declaring the thing that it is and understanding our position in Jesus Christ, understanding how your soul is secure in Him, and then understanding how somebody else's is not because the Bible says so, then you need to really kind of get down to the fine print and you need to get into the nitty-gritty and you need to put these pieces where they belong and teach it and understand it.
[2:09] And it's not that everybody in here is perplexed about these doctrines of the book of Hebrews. Or I understand you may not be, but I want you to know why we believe what we believe here and why some people don't stick around this church because they don't believe what we believe here.
[2:27] And so I want us all to be on the same page. And when it comes to these things about the tribulation or about enduring to the end of it or whether you can lose your salvation today, you need to know these things.
[2:39] You need to understand them and be secure in this. So last week my father was here and I had called him up just like in just a two-minute version of we've been studying right division and just kind of laying out a few like groundwork kind of ideas and concepts.
[2:57] And because he had taught the book of Hebrews, and he's continuing to do this in a Sunday school class, it's been going for quite a while, he's just been digging all over that book for a long time. I asked him, I said, we're about to get into Hebrews, would you be willing to just bring your spin or your take and your thoughts on it and take the Sunday school lesson and just stay on that?
[3:17] So he was more than happy to because the truth is that's pretty much what's engrossed him for probably the last two years is the book of Hebrews. And I'm not saying that he has it all figured out.
[3:29] What he gave last week was, reality was it was one angle of an interpretation of the book of Hebrews. He gave what he believes is the truth about it, what he teaches.
[3:40] Not everybody agrees with what he said. And if that throws a little curveball on you, I don't mean to do that, but you need to understand that there's what they say, good men on both sides of some ideas.
[3:51] And some of it's hard to nail down for sure. What we saw, you saw a whiteboard here with some timelines on it. And he laid out the timelines to explain why this book of Hebrews contains some of the content that it contains.
[4:08] It's different than certain things the Apostle Paul says to the church. There is absolutely contradictions between Paul's epistles to the church and to this book of Hebrews written to the Hebrews.
[4:20] There is absolutely some discrepancies, if you want to call it that. And so how do we reconcile these and how do we understand them and how do we apply them is the question.
[4:31] Well, his estimation of all of this is the difference in the doctrine of Hebrews that does not agree with Paul's doctrine to the church is because he believes and showed you that Hebrews was written earlier than anything else, than Paul before he received revelation of the church or understanding of the body of Christ.
[4:55] And the doctrine that pertains to it, Paul wrote this epistle to Hebrews and the only thing that was in his vision was the imminent tribulation and coming kingdom, the second coming of Christ.
[5:10] Even the disciples of the Lord were, before he ascended, were saying, Is it time now? Will it this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Like they were, that's all they knew.
[5:20] They didn't know anything about some age of grace and the Gentiles being brought in under this. It was not in their mind. It was not in their teaching. And so the Apostle Paul gets converted in Acts chapter 9.
[5:33] And the idea is that, I showed you how he ends up in Damascus. Where did he go before that? What's the term it uses in Galatia?
[5:45] Arabia. I showed you he was there and then he's in Damascus. There's three some years before he even comes back down to Jerusalem that take place. And in all of this, the Apostle Paul, potentially he writes his heart to his Hebrew brethren, showing them that Jesus is the Christ.
[6:04] Remember in Acts chapter 9, the immediate thing that he did upon his conversion was to go into the synagogues and to prove or to show that he is very Christ. That was exactly what he did with the book of Hebrews.
[6:17] And he does so with not this age of grace or church age in view, but rather the imminent second coming of Christ after a tribulation or a time of Jacob's trouble.
[6:29] And so this epistle of Hebrews points to faith in Christ as well as preparation to endure trouble that's coming to Israel. And what we did last Sunday, my dad ended by running through some passages real quickly.
[6:46] It was kind of already past the time and he was running through a few verses that show you this contradiction or this kind of what I like to call red flag verses. And so afterwards he asked me, he said, do you think most everybody understood or was up to that idea of what I was explaining?
[7:06] And I said, well, just in conversation, I said, well, I was at the door of showing these verses myself in Hebrews that are kind of problematic.
[7:17] And then he's like, oh, I wish I never even did that part because I was already over time. So we're going to pick up right where we stopped last Sunday and continue forward with looking at some of these problem verses and helping you to see it.
[7:32] If you hear me breathing heavy, it's because I just had some coffee situation in my throat and I feel it's restricted right now. And I'd like to just cough for about 10 minutes.
[7:43] I'm trying to hold that back. So don't let that distract you. Now, if you study and are grounded in Paul's 13 epistles of Romans through Philemon and you understand what it is to be in Christ and to have your soul saved and to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption and you have the promise or the spirit of adoption currently, if you understand that you cannot lose this salvation, you did not earn it, you are not worthy of it, it was a free gift, a gift of God, eternal life.
[8:17] And if you understand these truths, then when you come to the book of Hebrews and begin exploring these 13 chapters, there are certain statements in this book that just don't quite mesh with what you've learned from Paul.
[8:32] They have a different angle. They have different teachings. And what I've said already is I call these red flag verses. They throw up a red flag of concern because it becomes difficult to reconcile these verses with what Paul has already established and what we believe and we stand on, our position in Jesus Christ, that we are justified by faith, that we are sanctified, that we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son and that we are in His Son and we are now joint heirs with Christ.
[9:07] And all of this is sealed and settled and nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The work that He began in us, He will perform until the day of Christ Jesus.
[9:20] And all of this falls on God. He does the work. He does the sealing. He does the saving. The whole thing God does in us upon our belief in Christ.
[9:31] Now, in Hebrews, it has a different take and a different slant on some things. And so I want to point these out to you again and then take you back to some things Paul says. It will not be a fully involved Bible study.
[9:44] It's just going to be kind of a verse against a verse. And it will have to do for time's sake. So take a look here at Hebrews chapter 3. And when we see the differences, we're left with a decision.
[9:58] Do we try to make them fit together when they don't fit together, Paul's teaching to the one versus the other, or do we make a division? And you know what I'm going to say.
[10:09] We make a division, and I'm going to try to show you that here on our timeline today. All right, so Hebrews chapter 3, and the verse we want, I'll start in 5, 5 and 6. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.
[10:26] But Christ as a son over his own house, this is exalting Christ above Moses, but notice this statement, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
[10:44] So you're a part of Christ's house or under Christ's household, if you want to call it that, if you do something. And if you do it, notice the last three words, unto the end.
[10:57] Not just for a week or two weeks, but if you do it and you hold on, if you hold fast unto the end. That doesn't match a teaching of Paul to the church.
[11:09] Now hold on to your place here in Hebrews, and let's go to Ephesians chapter 2, and just kind of match some scriptures or try to match them and see if they do. Are you of the household of Moses?
[11:25] Or are you of the household of Jesus Christ? And if you're of the household of Jesus Christ, is it because you're holding fast something, that you're doing something, unto the end of your life or of a time period?
[11:40] Let's see what Paul says to the church of Ephesus in chapter 2, and I'll begin at verse 19 to the end. Now I might add that that before 19 is 13.
[11:57] That says this, Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. I might back up farther and say in verse 8, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.
[12:11] So somebody who has been brought nigh by the blood of Christ and saved and reconciled, in verse 16, and has access to the Father, in verse 18, that person, verse 19, it says, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the prophets, the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
[12:43] So speaking of a household, Jesus Christ himself is that foundation for this household, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an habitation, I'm sorry, a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
[13:01] Now Paul doesn't put that if we do this, this, and this to the end. He says you're saved and you're brought nigh and you're in Christ and you have access to God and you are currently of his household.
[13:19] Not if you do something unto the end. These are two different statements and they cannot be reconciled by saying, by twisting them or changing them. You get into any of our fundamentalist brethren or our Baptist brethren that don't quite believe the book the way we believe it, pure, they'll be happy to twist the words of Hebrews chapter 3 and they'll be happy to just, well, it really ought to say this.
[13:47] It's an unfortunate translation. You hear that kind of statements all the time. It's not an unfortunate translation. When you believe the words of the Bible, you don't believe your doctrine above the words of the Bible.
[14:03] You get your doctrine from the words of the Bible. And if the Bible says something that doesn't agree with your doctrine, then change your doctrine. Or, rightly divide the word of truth.
[14:14] Before we get to that, come back to Hebrews 3, but, what do you think that command even means? Rightly divide the word of truth.
[14:25] If you don't see this as a problem, if you think, well, it's written to Hebrew Christians and they're saved the same way we're saved and what it means is, and start to try to blend things together and force them together, then what in the world does rightly divide the word of truth even mean?
[14:44] And if it doesn't apply here in these statements in this case, then where in the earth and the Bible does it apply? That one I'd like to hear a good answer on. How do I rightly divide the word of truth if every time I see a need to, somebody just twists it and washes it away and pretends we don't do that?
[15:02] Alright, let's move on. Chapter 3 and the other verse we looked at last week was verse 14. I'll start in 13. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
[15:15] For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.
[15:26] Does this sound like what we've already been established in the Apostle Paul's doctrine that we're partakers of Christ? If condition, if we do something, there's an element of works in this chapter and it's calling for the one that wants to be of the household of Christ or of the, or a partaker of Christ is the words.
[15:48] It's calling for us to do something and to do it consistently all the way to the end. So you can see why some of the brethren think that we can lose our salvation and they believe that we have to go through the tribulation because of passages like this.
[16:06] Now keep your place in Hebrews, we'll come back, but find Colossians chapter 1. Just one verse of cross reference here. to compare something that we've already been established in in our Bible from the Apostle Paul.
[16:20] Colossians 1. A partaker of Christ. Somebody that can take part of what Jesus Christ offers.
[16:34] Colossians 1 and let's start in verse 12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath delivered us past tense from the power of darkness and hath translated us already happened into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have present tense redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins and it's going to go on to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.
[17:12] In the one case we have to somebody has to do something they have to hold they have to do it steadfast unto the end in another case somebody has something and it doesn't say they have to do anything at all but rather it says you've already been delivered you've already been translated into the kingdom of his dear son where we have eternal life and sanctification and reconciliation to God we have redemption and forgiveness in verse 14 things that we possess not if we hold fast you won't see if connected to those statements so there's a difference to be one's a conditional promise the other one is a finished work earlier in chapter 3 verse 6 one's a conditional promise the other one's an established position from Ephesians chapter 2 now let's go back to Hebrews and look at chapter 6 this is the third passage that we looked at in a rush at the end of the service last Sunday
[18:18] Hebrews chapter 6 I've already pointed this one out several weeks ago in a kind of in the need to rightly divide let's read this passage together in verse 4 says for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance meaning it's impossible to renew them again under repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame now this passage is not as difficult as people make it out to be but you can see this statement it is impossible for some individual that x y and z fulfills it's impossible to renew them again under repentance if they fall away now that's such a peculiar verse that people twist and make apply to
[19:23] Christians today on many levels one of them being tasted the heavenly gift tasted the good powers of the world to come that's kind of just always brushed aside and just say it's about Christians and you can't brush aside somebody that had the powers of the world to come that is not me I've never had the powers of the world to come but the apostles did and you can even see that look at Hebrews chapter 2 just real quick Hebrews chapter 2 and it's in verses 3 and 4 not going to get into the whole thing here but verse 3 and 4 how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us Hebrews confirmed unto us by them that heard him that's his apostles they confirmed how did they confirm it verse 4
[20:24] God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will and now the connection is verse 5 for unto the angels which goes back to verse 2 he's contrasting the apostles and the angels here for unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak meaning the apostles did have the quote unquote world to come at their fingertips with their powers with their signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost and so chapter 6 scripture with scripture that's not talking about me that's talking about men that heard Jesus Christ and performed power you remember in Matthew chapter 10 and he gave them power against he sent them forth two by two he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast out devils to heal the sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers that's called the powers of the world to come meaning the kingdom all the way to the end that kingdom has got some special stuff and there are signs of it and evidence of it before Calvary in Jesus
[21:31] Christ's ministry alright I'm getting into something else here if that helps you good but if not let's move on Hebrews chapter 6 4 through 6 is a very very popular phrase or verses to show or to believe that Christians today can lose their salvation if they fall away it's impossible to renew them again unto repentance so what does it mean to fall away I guess is a question you'd have to ask and understand and does it mean that you can fall away from salvation because that's what's taught or you can walk away can you walk away from Christ Paul says that we're in Christ bone of his bone flesh of his flesh we are in we are the body of Christ let's just peek at a quick few here Ephesians 5 Ephesians 5 and in between there get 2nd
[22:32] Timothy chapter 2 what does what does the apostle Paul establish to the believer before you ever get to Hebrews 6 5 30 says we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones that's obviously not physical but we are members of his body that's 1st Corinthians chapter 12 that we are members of the body of Christ or we are the body of Christ and members in particular we are the members of the body of Christ can you fall out or fall away from being a member of his body is the question look at 2nd Timothy chapter 2 this is in my opinion the strongest answer to somebody worrying about losing their salvation because the greatest thing they can come up with is that they could choose not to believe in
[23:33] Jesus Christ anymore that's the greatest thing not saying I slipped and fell into sin or I continued in sin but if they could say that they don't believe anymore the gospel what does the Bible say about that 2nd Timothy 2 verse 13 that's what it says if we believe not we as in believers born again Christians begotten again by the gospel if we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny notice the word himself because we're members of his body and once we're in we're in and it's it's already finalized we've been predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son God is not rescinding anything that he's given or placed us in with God it's sealed it's settled he's made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and I know that blows your mind to try to believe it but you're in
[24:36] Christ and positionally if you're in him it's the same as him saying I'm in the father and the father in me and when he was on earth in John 3 he said that how did it come out of there and he said no man has ascended to heaven but the son of man which is in heaven that's the phrase I want I think it's 3 14 and while he's talking to men on earth he says the son of man which is in heaven right now and that's just they didn't get that at all but that's the same positional truth of you and I in Christ is he's made us Ephesians 2 to sit together in heavenly places in him if you believe your Bible all right come back to Hebrews and we're going to do one more of these red flags Hebrews 10 there's much more to say on each one of these especially that last one about falling away or losing your salvation but we'll get to that next
[25:38] Sunday I believe or so or two Sundays from now probably for now let's just show you these problem texts in Hebrews and give you the realization that you have to make a division you have to do something with them Hebrews 10 and there's more than one but the one we'll look at is verse 39 I'll start in 38 because it kind of really helps to tie it together verse 38 says now the just shall live by faith that sounds like some that's New Testament doctrine but but what but if any man draw back that sounds like Hebrews chapter 6 somebody falling away!
[26:24] but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition what is that? it's essentially damnation perdition is the point of no return that's Judas Iscariot the son of perdition who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul this verse trips a lot of people up when they try to connect it to the apostle Paul's teaching to the church and we don't need to do that let's go to Ephesians again one more time in Ephesians chapter 1 not a thorough comparison but just one or two points to show the difference Ephesians 1 and I'll get chapter 4 as well somebody can draw back but the writer says but we're not of them who draw back to perdition but we're them that believe to the saving of the soul
[27:25] Ephesians 1 verse 13 Paul tells the body of Christ that they are sealed in verse 13 in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed!
[27:44] Hebrews 10 says we are of them that believe to the saving of the soul the other case you believed and you were sealed right then and there with that Holy Spirit of promise a promise of what well of your body being redeemed in verse 14 and being made like Jesus Christ as I said earlier predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son now look at chapter 4 verse 30 couple this with chapter 1 13 these are the two places in Ephesians it talks about being sealed grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption so you believed and ye were sealed in a moment of time when you were saved and you still are sealed until the day of redemption and in that there is no!
[28:43] if we do something unto the end or if we unto the day of redemption it's you are the work is of God and I think I don't know if it's 1st Corinthians early in 1st or 2nd Corinthians it uses that word sealed again and it says that he which hath such and such and such and sealed us is God now this is a comparison of these two of these four verses in Hebrews that are kind of these red flag ideas and there are more there are several more but these are definitely the strongest of them all and let's consider something looking back at our timeline now so I made this just the New Testament zoomed in on the right side of that old timeline so from the crucifixion of Christ going forward that's exactly what we had on the board already just zoomed up a little bit bigger hopefully you can read that and see it and I'm going to move those times down to the bottom so I can have the!
[29:42] the! the crucifixion of Christ and those orange letters describing the church age obviously this is not at all the scale in any way to really show years or time but just allow this to these divisions here and the gaps in between to fill us in on some things what we studied and just read in the book of Hebrews fits somewhere on that timeline and I believe it fits right there I already showed you we already covered that the word of God has the ability from prophecies from the minor prophets and their statements of judgment and Hebrews New Testament books just the same as Old Testament books have the ability to say the same thing or to say something or to have a message and have it being aimed!
[30:33] at two different places when these comments come up about somebody falling away or somebody not being able to be renewed or to repent again to get right with God there's another passage in chapter 10 about sinning willfully if we sin willfully verse 26 if you're there you can take a peek at that that's something there that's going to be tough to deal with in the church age and people mess that one up too but I believe those statements these verses we're looking at go there now I'm going to back track circle back onto something that I want to emphasize again so you like ingrained in you what we are not doing is putting the book of Hebrews in between those two things it wouldn't be right to do that if we went with the timeline and showed it without the church age and showed you how Hebrews just kind of has that view of all that that would make sense and some of that's so what I taught you already is we do not divide on the book we divide on the message or on the content and there are certain elements of content within that book of
[31:48] Hebrews that does not identify with the church doctrine and so we have to do something with that what we do is we rightly God willing rightly divide it and like I said earlier what else does that!
[32:04] if we are not doing this now the next thing I want to do and we don't have time to really step into this this morning the next thing I want to do is start to build some things on the left side of that rapture symbol so where that gap is between Calvary and the rapture let's start building and seeing what the apostle Paul does say to us and when we these things do not match you cannot reconcile them you can't talk your way around it or out of it we have to divide and if we're wrong about the division if I'm wrong that it's after the rapture it's somewhere else and people teach all kinds of things about the tribulation the mid trib post trib amillennial blah blah blah if I'm wrong about that I don't know where I'm wrong about it I don't know where this is not me but a pretty sound belief so we'll go forward the next time we get together next
[33:09] Sunday we won't have our Sunday school hour but the following we will and we'll start to show you the comparisons and allow you to just establish and see for yourself if this is going to hold up so let's take a break there and if you