Well, good morning everyone. It is a great day to be here
together. I've enjoyed this worship so
far, very much thank you to the song leaders and those who like
prayers for those participants in your seat.
I am thank you to Chris for leading that song.
I think it paints a beautiful picture of the whole crucifixion
scene, and it definitely has my mind in the right place this
morning. So thank you for being here.
It's great to see everyone. Today, we have a few visitors.
It's, it's great to be with you today to worship Our God
together. Today we're going to be studying
from Hebrews chapter 5 and in this chapter we're going to be
building on as everything has in this letter, the previous
chapters, the previous everything that's come before
this in the book of Hebrews. So we'll do a quick review but
we're going to try to plug through quite a few verses today
and let the context do the work. So if you want to get your
Bibles out with me, will be pretty much we spending most of
our time Hebrews and you Can follow along their, I'll be
using the new American Standard. So it's a just a little bit
different than the new King James, but it's should be pretty
easy to read easy to understand for us.
So, typically, I read the whole chapter, we're going to go
through, but in order to save time, I'm just going to go
through it, verse by verse to start.
So Hebrews chapter 5 leading up to this.
We just covered Hebrews chapter 4.
Last time I spoke and in the book of Hebrews, we've covered
these main ideas so far. The fact that number one and
chapter one. Jesus is divine.
Then we went on to talk about how Jesus is greater than those
great, and awesome Angels even those Destroying Angels Jesus is
greater than them. Jesus is now greater than the
prophets. This is quite a large section of
the book of Hebrews talking about how he is greater than the
prophets. He's the Fulfillment of the Old
Testament, but yet he is soup. He supersedes even the Old
Testament, people and the actions there.
So, in the book of Hebrews, we've come this far.
And last time, that the immediate context is a couple of
verses, I'll read from chapter 4 verse It for of Joshua had given
them rest. He would not have spoken of
another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest
for the people of God, for anyone who enters God's rest
also rests from their works just as God did from his, let us
therefore make every effort to enter that rest.
So that no one will perish by by following their example of
Disobedience. Then he goes on to say,
therefore since we have a great high priest this Jesus Who has
passed through the heavens who has come down to us and who has
gone back to God. Jesus, the son of God, let us
hold fast our confession, hold on, tight, and grow for.
We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are
yet without sin. So this is the immediately
preceding verses remember, the original writers didn't put
versus, so there's no break here.
This is a continuation of I thought.
And so, we move right on into Hebrews chapter 5, verse 1 for
every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf
of men and things pertaining to God.
So, before we jump in to the extensive, this study, this
topic of the priesthood keeps coming up.
And not everyone who reads this as familiar with it, with what a
priest was. Now everyone in here, has an
extensive knowledge of the Old Law.
And so just for a A quick background.
We learned last week when Shah hey taught us about, he gave us
a pretty big overview of the whole Bible.
And we talked about how Adam and Eve were kind of a type of
priests in the garden working. Before the Lord, then in the Old
Testament, the priests were those who were designated to
serve in God's house. They were the, the tribe of Levi
or Levis family his descendants. And then now in the New
Testament, we're told that we are a kingdom of priests.
One of us here, who is a member of gods.
Family is a kingdom of priests, but simply put the role of a
priest is someone who goes to God on behalf of man, and
connects with man on behalf of on behalf of God.
That's a simple concept. It's a connection to the Divine.
Now, this isn't unique to Christianity though, and I think
it's something that God put inside of us to understand it's
a natural law or a natural desire to Have someone to help
us understand the Divine to connect to the Divine you.
It doesn't matter what religion, you go to or even really, what
spirituality because some people aren't don't consider themselves
religious, but maybe they're a spiritual person.
They're in tune with spiritual things.
They might say, they still go to maybe a yogi.
Maybe someone goes to a shaman, they go to another religions.
You have the, the Dalai Lama for Buddhism, you have the pcre.
You have different levels of people who act as a go-between
between God, and man, supposedly.
And so, the priest in the Old Testament is this is this
fulfillment someone who had helped man, understand God, and
his word, and would help man offer sacrifices in the Old
Testament. And now connect to God today,
just like we do. So very simple concept.
Someone needs to go between, man and God.
So Jesus was not just a priest. He Was the high priest.
So he started out in verse 14, every high priest taken from
among men is appointed on behalf of men and things pertaining to
God. So Aaron was the first high
priest. He was appointed by God and
place of Moses, he was appointed by God for this role and so the
high priest. Don't choose this for
themselves. No, God appoints them in order
to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, that was
the role of the high priest in the Old Testament to off.
Gifts and sacrifices for sins. It was also though that he could
deal gently with the ignorant and misguided.
This is the way The New American Standard.
Words it the new King James and several others word it, the
ignorant and I think gone astray.
So we'll talk about that difference in just a minute.
He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided since he
also himself has beset with weaknesses.
Now, this is a beautiful concept that I think has been tarnished.
Act a little bit when we think of religious leaders, a lot of
times, it's it's muddy with the idea that we've seen in the
world and especially people who don't have a religious
affiliation. They've got a really muddy
tainted idea. Of what a religious leader
should be. We hear so much of corruption
and, and relate and religious Elite or corruption with church
leaders. Where they were stealing money,
or maybe they were committing inappropriate acts, they were
getting that scan. Dalls this.
And that we, there's a lot of. What's the word?
There's a lot of shady Behavior. We've seen from church leaders,
who've taken advantage of their role, but that's not the role of
God designed, and it's really beautiful.
When you read it, even from the Old Testament, he was one who
went to God offering sacrifices, and he was designed to be
someone who wasn't just high and mighty about the people, but he
was with them enough to be gentle with them.
And I think it's important to understand God's design for this
role for a spiritual leader, because it's not the the nasty
role that we've seen it becoming in many circles.
God has designed a beautiful system even from the beginning
of time, even when maybe in the Old Law and the old days, we
would have considered that to be a hard time, an eye for an eye
time, where there's a lot of Wars there was a lot of things
going on that, that we look. Back and say man, we have it
easy now for survival in many things like that.
Even in a time like that God didn't Overlook the need for his
leaders to be gentle with his people.
And now he's and now he's taking this and he's showing us Jesus
and light of this concept since he himself is also beset with
weaknesses. That's why the high priest can
understand and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices
for sins. As for the people.
So also for himself. So, the high priest didn't just
go. All you poor guys down there
with your immorality and sin, know he was doing it for himself
to it was for him. But is different for Jesus,
because Jesus never sinned. Now, I underlined these words,
ignorant and misguided and this is kind of a side point.
So we'll kind of take a pause and talk about this for a
minute. When I think about those who are
lost, sometimes I have a view of them.
I don't think I should have He points out here that people can
be ignorant and misguided. Now, this word ignorant, doesn't
mean you have a hard heart necessarily.
Ignorance just means you don't know something about it.
I think is Mark Twain that said we're all ignorant, just about
different things. We all have a lack of
understanding and we could all especially be misguided.
I like the way, the New American Standard, where did that the
other word is maybe gone astray, but it has a connotation either
way you look at the translation. Of being misled or being
misguided. And this is a concept that we
can see throughout the Bible and Romans chapter 10 verse 14.
It says how then will they call on him in whom they have not
believed, how will they believe in him whom they have not heard?
And how will they hear without a preacher?
How will they preach, unless they are sent?
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good, good news
of good things so people can be ignorant in the world.
Old, but I think we got to be careful.
Not to look at the world like it's just a bunch of people who
don't never want the gospel. We can be ignorant ourselves.
And so, especially if you're ignorant of this, that's the job
of God's people specifically, its mentioning of the high
priest minutes and gods people's job to help with ignorance and
those who are misguided and this one, especially I want to talk
about for Roman from Jeremiah chapter 23.
This idea of being misguided, really hit home for me when
Oakdale was doing the eldership study and we were talking a lot
about the role of a Shepherd. The Shepherd and the elders
described as one. Who should be a Shepherd helping
the people along. And in that process, I came
across this verse in the study of that.
And Jeremiah chapter 23, it says this.
God's people had gone all astray were committing sin, but in the
middle of all that, it says woe to the Shepherds who are
destroying and scattering the Sheep of my pasture, declares
the Lord. Therefore thus says, the Lord
God of Israel concerning the Shepherds who are attending my
people, you have scattered, my flock and driven them away and
have not attended to them behold.
I'm about to tend to you for the for you.
For the evil of your Deeds, declares the Lord in the midst
of a Nation who has Off. And who is sinning, God?
Went after the Shepherds who are misleading the people.
He says, I'm going to come down on them verse 3, then I myself
will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries
where I have driven them and bring them back to their Pastor.
I believe this is a prophecy of Jesus to come New Testament and
they will be fruitful. And multiply I will also raise
up Shepherds over them and they will tend them and they will not
be afraid longer nor be terrified.
Nor will any be missing declares the Lord God was going to come
back and get them and Shepherd them himself Jesus.
Did that? Jesus came down himself and saw
a bunch of leaders who had misled his people.
And he was frustrated angry with it, and he said, I'm going to
come down myself and I'm going to leave my people, and I'm
going to Shepherd my flock. And the point is until we have
compassion for the misguided, we will just be bitter against the
world. We're going to have an
us-versus-them mentality. We're going to throw mental
grenades out of this building at them.
But our job is to have compassion on the ignorant and
misguided to know that we ourselves could be in there.
Same shoes, what we want. God's will is for his people,
not to just know what to share with compassion.
So the world can know, because if we are see the world as a
world full of people who don't want it, what kind of life is
that to live, is that really the gospel driver?
I was talking earlier, I heard Isaac say, you know, my friend
who was converted, he's spoken here before he was talking about
this idea of evangelism and this idea of people thinking, man,
nobody wants it. And he was like they were
telling me that they were talking to me, someone who's
converted there was someone else in the situation was converted
telling us about how nobody wants it and he was like, what
does that make you feel? How do you think I feel about
that you're sitting here telling me nobody wants this?
I am a convert. He's now a preacher of the
gospel and he's saying, no, but nobody people are telling him
nobody wants it. That's not true.
May we have compassion on the ignorance and misguided.
That is the role of God's leaders of all time.
Going on in verse 4, And no one takes the honor to himself, so
this honor of being set apart as a high priest, no one takes to
honor to himself. But he receives it when he is
called by God, even as Aaron was so in the Old Testament, you
didn't just say, I'm going to step into this role.
God had to appoint. You Aaron was the first one,
versified. So also Christ did not glorify
himself. So as to become a high priest,
but he who said to him, you are my My son.
Today, I have begotten, you just, as he also says, in
another passage, you are a priest forever, according to the
order of Melchizedek. So this is tying in a lot of the
concepts of Jesus being the Eternal Son of God being Gods,
son. We talked about in chapter two
of the book of Hebrews and he's continuing to spiral that in and
to his into his teaching that Jesus didn't pick.
Didn't do this for himself, but God.
Chosen and God appointed him and it says, you are a priest
forever. According to the order of
Melchizedek, who in the world, is that funny name?
We'll talk about that more, probably another study, because
he doesn't spend a lot of time on here.
Verse 7 in the days of his flesh.
Speaking of Jesus off, he offered up both prayers and
supplications with loud, crying and tears to the one able to
save him from death. And he was heard because of his
piety. I highlighted this phrase the
days of his flesh because I just thought it's going to be
interesting. Is it's just crazy to think that
one day, we're going to be able to talk about our lives as the
days of our flesh. There's going to be a day.
Once this life is over, we're going to maybe look back and
heaven and think man, you know, the days in my flat, when the
back in the days in my flesh, that's what this is referencing
of Jesus. The days when he was alive on
Earth, he offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying.
And tears to the one able to save him.
What time is when you, when we hear of a hero and literature
and movies or whatever it is, the hero is / shown as this
person who's never never wavered.
Never never slipping up. Never, never daunted.
But man, it paints such a real picture of Jesus.
And one that I'm glad God gave us the reality of that he was
and you had loud crying and tears.
He was driven to the point. Of coming on his knees to God
from his trials. That is something that we can
all relate to jibon. Jesus was driven to his knees by
life and he did wasn't driven to the point that he just overcame
everything on his own. Even he went to the one who was
able to save him from Death. We are driven to our knees
sometimes with nowhere to go. Even Jesus did that?
And he was heard because of his piety, you know, it's
interesting you could have said anything like he was heard
because he was God's son, he was heard because he was God
himself. It says that he was heard
because of his piety or his reverence you that can be
translated. He wasn't just gives a reason.
It's very specific. Frank prayed today that without
an attitude of reverence, he started his prayer with he said,
and Jesus Was Heard because of his reverence, it's a hard
concept to grasp deity, being reverent to deity, but it is a
beautiful example for us. Verse 8, although he was a son.
Speaking of Jesus, he learned obedience from the things which
he suffered Jesus had to learn obedience.
Jesus had to go through things like ordinary life and he had to
be obedient, he had to be obedient through this
spectacular challenges. Like, the crucifixion, he had to
be obedient. As a young man, he had to learn
obedience as a child and he had to learn obedience to human
authority. And Luke 2:51, it says and he
went down with him. Speaking of when he was in
Nazareth, was his parents. He went down with them and came
to Nazareth and he continued, excuse me.
This is a situation where Jesus had gone to Jerusalem with his
family and then he was left by himself, and his parents came
came back looking for him and they finally found him after
they found him and he said, didn't you know that I would be
about my father's business? He was in the temple.
Talking and asking questions and speaking with them.
After that says, and you went down with them.
So we went back with his parents and came to Nazareth and he
continued in subjection to them and his mother treasured, all
these things in her heart, the things about Jesus potential in
his in his goals, and his mindset, verse 52 and Jesus kept
increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and Men,
it gives us four things here that Jesus increased in.
He grew in understanding his physique, grew.
He became a man, he grew. Spiritually his favor with God,
and he grew socially his favor, with men.
Jesus had to learn and to learn obedience.
He had to learn how to be a man, how to be a person.
Verse 9 of Hebrews chapter 5 goes on to say and having been
made perfect. So, there's that idea again.
He wasn't just, it wasn't just when he was born, he was
perfect, he had to become it. We know his people, there's a
certain level of becoming we've already talked about in Hebrews
where you have to sort of earn your stripes, he became, and he
was made perfect through the things that he endured and
learned. He was made perfect and he
became to all those who obey him the source of Eternal salvation.
It is fascinating to think that there is a source of Eternal
salvation. You know, it's awesome.
If you're need water to find a source of water, we think of a
source of would, you know, if you're in a forest, that's a
source of wood, a source of something, you need, you can
find a source of gold in the mountains and is crazy.
What people will do to get to that goal, they will carve up
mountains. They will take away mountains,
it will excavate and filter and sift to no end to find gold. and
it's fascinating that we have a source of Eternal salvation and
it's in the person of Jesus Christ himself, we have a source
of Eternal salvation Goes on to say verse 10 being designated by
God as a high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek
concerning him, we have much to say there's a lot to say about
Melchizedek and it is hard to explain.
Why is hard to explain because you have become dull of hearing.
They were to the point where their, their ears weren't
necessarily bad. He's not saying it's their ears
that they couldn't hear, he's saying that their hearts, Yes,
often said he who has ears to hear.
Let Him hear everybody has ears, but he's talking about a
spiritual disposition. To listen.
We've already learned that the book of Hebrews told us that the
word of God is sharp is our hearing Sharp.
Is our spiritual hearing sharp, or do we have Dole hearing?
May we have sharp spiritual ears.
There's people in here who are hard of hearing or have Dole
hearing physically, but are very sharp spiritual Minds that's
what matters in God's sight. There's people here with hearing
aids, who have sharp spiritual ears.
It doesn't matter how you here, it's a matter about how your
mind receives it may. We have sharp spiritual ears,
Verse 12 for though. By this time, you ought to be
teachers by this time, there they are.
Hebrews, who have learned the word, their Hebrew Christians.
By this time, these people have heard it.
Long enough, you should be teachers, but you have, but you
have need again for someone to teach you, the elementary
principles of the Oracles of God and you have come to need milk
and not solid food. So the issue one of the things
he's kind of finally built up. Do you understand this great?
Jesus. You understand how powerful and
mighty he is? And you're lacking, you should
be a teacher of this. You should understand how great
this is to where you should be teaching other people.
But you still have to have people teach you.
I've heard this referred to as kind of mouth open Christianity.
Feed me. And it can be like that
sometimes for us at church. Do I come to church?
Do I approach my spiritual life with a feed me mentality.
Do you come to here, waiting for someone else to feed you?
What do you come here? Ready to participate in courage.
To try to strengthen others. Or are we the ones feeding off
of other people constantly and he, specifically, talking and
teaching. Now, with the teaching, he does
not extinct distinguish between man and woman, and he does not
distinguish between public or private.
That's the beauty of this passage to me.
If there's not anybody in this room.
Who is exempt. Any sentient person in this room
who can understand God's word can understand the beauties of
it. And I've known it for long
enough, we should be teaching, you might not be have to teach
up here, that's not the role he's talking about.
He's talking about any role where you can teach someone
else. God's word is designed to not be
kept herself. If you learn it and you truly
understand it, you can't keep it to yourself.
That's why when Jesus says the man Willa God will come and make
his home with him. And the word of God will become
a Fountain of Living Water springing out of him.
You can't keep it in. Water goes in, it's got to come
out of a fountain and that's the idea with God's word is, it
cannot Not just be learned and kept, you don't have to teach up
here, if that's your role. Great, but for, for the women,
this is just as much. You, you have just as much of a
role in this that if you've been knowing God's word long enough,
if you have known it long enough, You should be ready to
teach now. Not everyone in this room is in
that position. There's people who are
spiritually young, and that's fine and we'll talk about that
in the next slide. He says, for everyone who
partakes of only milk, only milk is not accustomed to the word of
righteousness. For he is an infant.
The word of righteousness, is something you have to get
accustomed to. You have to immerse yourself
that you have to Live it and study it for it, to become
something. You can handle more of because
if you don't do that, you're going to be stuck on milk.
You're going to be stuck with the baby food and God does not
want that. And, you know, as I teach this,
I want you to be clear. I forgot to say this at the
beginning. A lot of this is going to sound
like I'm preaching at you. This is just as much as me, but
I feel like it's a disservice if I don't teach you with the
urgency that the Riders saying, but if I don't move on from milk
and if I don't get accustomed, God's word.
I'm a spiritual infant, and that is supposed to be kind of funny,
but also not funny. It's cute for a while.
When a baby is eating baby food, they need to be taken care of.
They need to be nurtured. Someone else has to feed them,
but there's a point at which it's not cute anymore.
It's not cute to be a man being fed by somebody else or to be
man, drinking from a bottle of milk.
It's supposed to be funny because it's embarrassing to be
a baby still when you're old. But it's also not supposed to be
funny because it's like, seriously, that's bad.
God's will does not just go away.
God's word is eternal. Jesus said Heaven and Earth will
pass away, but my word will never pass away.
This is going to be here for eternity.
Are we going to be spiritual babies for eternity?
Are we going to be spiritually immature for eternity?
So the question is, who's feeding you?
Because we went in this verse, you ought to be teachers, is
someone else exclusively teaching you, there's nothing
wrong. I'm talk to all the time.
I have a lot to learn to. I'm Todd from my seat as well
but it is that my exclusive diet is that my exclusive spiritual
diet. Is it all the spiritual
nourishment? You get when you come to church
Or are you able to feed yourself?
Because once you can feed yourself then you can work on
feeding others. That's the natural life.
Cycle of Christian. That's not supposed to be
forever. It's cute.
Beautiful and natural for a baby to be a baby while it's a baby,
but not after that. Verse 14.
But solid food is for the mature who because of practice, how do
you become mature practice repetition, who became who
because of practice have their senses trained to discern Good
and Evil. For a while, it can be
frustrating. Because even if you care about
spiritual things, you're going to be frustrated by the process
of practice. There's a lot of times where
I've had questions and I could feel frustrated but just having
the questions and never the answers and and even when you
have the answers you don't feel like you fully understand it.
I have tons to learn. And and there many people in
here who were way more mature than I am, But are we practicing
spiritual things and our our, our senses being trained to
discern good and evil. You can't always explain the
process. You can't always hear it from a
lesson and have somebody tell us in a lesson what to do, what
think we have to practice it ourselves to be discerning. when
I was going through my teacher training, we had this tool we
use called the depth of knowledge wheel And the wheel of
depth of knowledge, they called The dok Wheel.
There's level one, two, three and four.
And basically we our goal is to take students from level one to
where they can do level for type things and I know it's really
small but level 1 is basically recall.
So if you can recall a lesson that would be what would be
considered a level one depth of knowledge level 2 would be a
skill or a concept that you can take away.
Level 3 is where we're at is as teachers they were really He has
to work on stay in the level 3 and 4 type of activities where
you can get your students. Assessing comparing
investigating differentiating drawing conclusions, citing
evidence critiquing, formulating developing a logical argument.
It's great. And I remember the first time
that I was really starting to memorize, or is it memorized
there's memorize up here? That first time when I was
starting to learn. My first verses, that was all I
could do. It was great.
Well, I've memorized my first couple verses that was great and
we need to continue to do all these things.
But just recall and just repeating and just stating or
even listening. Listening is not even on this
because that's that's just an act.
It's not even a skill necessarily Level 2 being able
to get more parameters for understanding it and a little
bit more ability to interact with the concept, but level 4 is
what we're encouraged to connect to synthesize to, to basically
apply. That is basically the whole idea
of level 44, students, if we want them to apply a concept,
that's why they want student projects that's life for
Christian. Once we can take something, put
it into application. I tore lives and even to explain
it to others. I think there's one on here
where you can explain to others, if my student can explain how to
do something to another, I know they've got that down.
That's a simple biblical concept all along.
So, this is Hebrews chapter 5, we're a little bit early, so I
didn't know if I was going to go into chapter 6, a little, but
you cannot stop the context here.
So I'm going to go a little bit further.
But so far and have chapter 5, we've learned these few things,
we need to have compassion on the ignorant, misguided that we
have Christ. As an example, he had to learn
obedience, the hard way, just like us.
And we have a source of Eternal salvation.
Don't be a man-child. Those are our lessons from
Hebrews chapter 5 but the context does not stop there and
I don't want to leave us with that kind of harsh.
Ending Hebrews chapter 6, goes on to say therefore after all
those things we just said therefore leaving the elementary
teaching about the Christ. The basics, the very milk of the
word, let us press on to maturity, not laying again, the
foundation of repentance from dead works and of Faith toward
God. If you were going to build a
building, you just laid the foundation over and over the
house won't get anywhere. Says, don't keep laying this
out. The same Foundation from dead
works and of Faith toward God, of instruction, about Washings
and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and
eternal judgment. And these we will do if God
permits. It's not like we're not like
we're eliminating these but we need to move on to the next
thing and I think maybe we'll talk about this more later but I
want to get the points. He's Making.
Verse 44 in the case of those who have once been enlightened
and have tasted of the Heavenly gift.
And I've been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted
the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and
then have fallen away. It is impossible to renew them
again to repentance. Since they again, crucify to
themselves, the Son of God and put him to an open.
Shame. Not too long ago.
I heard the read that verse and I was like, is it saying that
there's people who it's impossible to save?
Because it sounds like that at first read now, maybe we'll
spend more time on this next time but in short, I'm number
one, I believe that a lot of this is talking about the powers
of the age to come. Maybe being the church age where
the New Testament Church, they were given miracles to see the
powers of the age to come where they were proving that Christ
was the Messiah with Miracles and setting up his church with
Miracles. So I don't know if this is even
necessarily talking about All in this dispensation but either
way, I feel I think we can still get the point.
He says those people who have fallen away after seeing all
this after partaking of the Holy Spirit after tasting, the
Heavenly calling, it's impossible to renew them again
to repentance now. The point being, it's dangerous.
If you go through all the steps of knowing and then you just
Don't progress. This is the danger of not
progressing that we started last chapter.
He said, it's dangerous to stay spiritual maybe because if you
just see all that and you move on, there is nothing that can be
done for them. Now, does that mean there's
anyone in this room is danger of in danger of never being able to
be saved? I believe what this is saying
is, it's impossible for anyone else to renew them.
Because there's nothing that I can do.
For one of my friends who has left the church, it's up to
them. I cannot renew them to
repentance. That is totally up to them and
there's nothing that I can do to change their hearts if they've
heard it already. It's up to them.
So I don't think this is saying that there's people in this room
who can never be saved or that there are friends who just
their, they're a lost cause I think it's just saying that we
cannot always control it, it's up to them.
Since they again, crucify to themselves, the Son of God, and
put him to open shame. Now after backing off that
point, the point is still the same.
It's it's a bad thing. It's humiliating for Christ to
be, put to an open shame after already seeing everything
beautiful. He's done for them after already
being having seen the wonders of Christ.
It's a shame to him. What if that was used sacrifice
and saw somebody just walk away from you.
Now hurt that would be an open shame for the ground and drinks
in the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation
useful to those who seek. It is also tilled receives a
blessing from God. So he's going to tell us two
types of ground, one ground takes that rain and it produces
vegetation, that's basically the good soil that accepts and lives
and thrives and grows and God's word that receives a blessing
from God. But if it yields thorns and
thistles, it is Worthless and close to being cursed.
These are two types of people. One type of person who takes
God's word and lives it out, and grows in it.
Is blessed by God. But someone, if someone takes
God's word and just doesn't grow anything good from it, That's
that's close to being cursed. If you have a field that never
puts out any good crops they would curse that field and say
forget it we're moving on to a different part of the land.
No, obviously God's got a mercy so that doesn't that whole
analogy doesn't completely apply, but that's oil, that will
not ever repent. The end is to be burned and
that's a really harsh reality, but it's the reality and we will
be wrong to not teach it. You have the choice.
Are you going to be a thorny ground?
That doesn't respond? Or are you going to be good
ground? Good ground, doesn't always look
green and fertile though. Sometimes there's stages.
Were Ground takes a while it. Can, you can have the ground
with all these plants and all the foliage?
It takes time sometimes But today, you can set a course.
Am I going to be good ground or am I going to be thorny ground
from God's word verse 9? This is where I couldn't end.
I couldn't end before because he goes on to say, but beloved
people, we love. We are convinced a better things
concerning you. We're convinced that you're not,
that you're not going to be stopping there, you're going to
be better than that. You got this and things that
accompany salvation, though, we are speaking.
In this way, we're talking some harsh things but we're confident
you can be better than this for God is Not unjust as to forget
your work and the love which you have shown toward his name.
This is deeply personal. Maybe there's people in this
audience who don't feel like they're at the spot where they
may be used to be. Or maybe you your, we go through
phases, sometimes we're up. Sometimes we're down.
And maybe this is, if this is a down face for you.
God is Not unjust to forget your work and the love, which you
have shown toward his name, even if you are in a down spot, God
doesn't forgive. That's incredibly encouraging.
I had there's a song called remember the Bad and the good
you just forget, that's not God. God remembers that love that
you've shown toward his name and having Minister door served and
instill ministering serving to the Saints.
God doesn't forget that. That's a wonderfully, comforting
scripture, verse not verse 11. This is the last one will cover
and we desire. The each one of you show the
same diligence. So as to realize the full
Assurance of Hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish
but imitators of those who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. He says he doesn't just say, I
want you to be diligent. So you'll make the church
stronger which you could have said that.
But the diligence is also for the full assurance.
Of Hope of the individual. So you're not going to have the
full Assurance of Hope. Unless you're a diligent person
in Christ, it is for the benefit of others, and for Christ, cause
what you can, it seems your. You can only have the full
Assurance of Hope, when you're immersed in it, when you're
living it. And when you are all about it
until the end, God wants us to be assured in Our Hope.
God does not want us to be unconfident.
First John says that that I believe the first job says that
that he has written to them so that they wouldn't know and have
Assurance of their salvation, that's God's plan, and we must
be diligent to enjoy it that way.
And the cure for sluggishness. Is diligence imitators of those
who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
You know what? I don't want to work out the
most, it's actually not even when I'm sore from another
workout. It's not when I'm just worked
out the day before. The time that I want to work
out, the least is when I've worked out in a month or two.
My body is in a I've no momentum.
I feel sluggish. But when I get up and get going
and I work out today, the next day, I want two more in the next
day. I want to even more because my
body has momentum. It's like, it's a continual
snowball of good things. That is our lesson for today.
I hope that we can myself starting with myself, take
something from this and learn from Hebrews, chapter 5 and half
of Hebrews chapter 6, so that we can become fruitful and multiply
in the service of our God together.
If you've heard the word today and maybe you're not even,
you're not even started on this process yet.
Maybe you're not even a baby. Maybe you're just, maybe you're
waiting to be reborn at this point.
You can be reborn again. Today you can hear the word what
you've already done today. You can believe on Jesus Christ.
You can repent of your past life and change to go his way and
confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and be baptized for
the remission of your sins and be born again at that point.
If you want to start by being a babe, it's beautiful.
Ooh, it is a beautiful process. We've seen it recently and man,
there's nothing better than. And then from there go on to
live a Christian Life. Like she hates all last week.
It's we're not we're not stopping there.
It is. A whole plan where we live it
out in our lives. And if you either want to start
today, or if you want to get something right, we'd be happy
to help you this morning while we stand while we see.
We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
would like any additional information, or you would like
to receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.
Please email us at info at her Church of Christ
Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays
at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our
honored guest.