Bible Survey - Hebrews

Hebrews is a very special book. One of the points we make, it's one of the two in the New Testament that was written to Jews who had come to faith in Christ. James writes it to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, so it's not a particular group. Hebrews seems to have been written to a particular group of Jews. And he summarizes their spiritual condition, so it's not just Jews in general. So it's a very special book.

Hebrews has a few lines of evidence that point to believing Jews who are the audience of Hebrews living in and around Ephesus. It's not definitive, notice it doesn't say to the Jews who are in Ephesus. But here are some of the indicators. One is Timothy is mentioned there in the last chapter, Hebrews 13.23, and he had been sent to Ephesus. Secondly, the quotes from the Greek Old Testament, which is also, you may hear it as the Septuagint, come from a particular family of those documents centered in Ephesus, the Theodosian species, if you will. Other New Testament books quoting from the same family of Old Testament Greek texts are Ephesians and Revelation, and Revelation was written by the Apostle John, who spent his last years in and around Ephesus. Even when he was on Patmos, the church at Ephesus was the first one of the seven churches.

And then thirdly, the frequent and continued use of nautical terms in Hebrews, which is on page three there, would indicate that the readers were from a port city, where they would be familiar with those nautical terms. New Testament-era port cities with a significant population of Jews included Corinth, Ephesus, Myrna, and Alexandria. So again, Ephesus would be a good candidate. So it's not definitive, but very likely that these Jews were in or very near Ephesus.

The other thing we bring out here in the middle of page one, the author of Hebrews is not known for certain. Style does not fit with any of the other New Testament books. He has a unique style. The author of Hebrews is consistent with what Paul says, but says some of the same things very differently, as we'll take a look at here.

Well, what I indicate here is probably some good candidates are Barnabas or Apollos. And some of the reasons for that is Barnabas, remember where Paul and Barnabas parted ways? Talks about that. Just before Paul took off on his second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas parted ways over John Mark. Barnabas took John Mark basically to his home in Cyprus, took John Mark there, and then after that, Paul and Peter, Both looked at John Mark, who flaked out on their first missionary journey, as someone who was useful and a good and faithful man.

So Barnabas' time with him was really valuable. So anyway, Barnabas was a Levite. So that would have put him in particular knowledge of the temple sacrifices, and so a lot of the terminology and everything that is used there in Hebrews would have been unnatural for him. I would say he is probably number one candidate. A good one after that is Apollos, who is from Alexandria, a port city, and a Jew. And so Apollos, and he went to Ephesus, that again would point to Ephesus being a likely candidate, and spoke in the synagogue there in Ephesus. So I think he, and he also had contact with Timothy, he'd be another good candidate. So Barnabas and Apollos would be, of the known people in the New Testament, would be good ones, and they both had association with Paul. Hebrews is likely written in the middle 60s. Some people place it up to 68 AD. I'm inclined not to think so. Reasons. There's no mention in here of, hey, you might lose your temple or anything of that sort.

And at 66 AD was when the Jews did their rebellion against the Romans. And it took the Romans several years to come in and wipe them out. But nonetheless, they would have seen the temple ceremonies as at risk. But that's not brought up in Hebrews at all. So I'm inclined to believe in earlier age, middle 60s, maybe even as early as 64 AD. So there are multiple evidences of having been written before the Romans destroyed the temple and put the remaining Jews out of Jerusalem, including one, Jews were tempted to go back to reliance upon the temple sacrifices and priesthood, including the Jewish high priest mentioned in here.

Secondly, there is no mention or hint that the temple had been or was about to be destroyed. The Jewish rebellion began in 66 AD and was put down in AD 70. July 1st, AD 70 was when the Roman battering ram started banging against the gates. The Romans had a couple of waves of prior attacks, but didn't sustain them. This last one in 70 AD was sustained.

In Hebrews 7.14, for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, is present tense.

And how would you know that? You'd go and look it up in the genealogical records, kept on the north side of the temple. Okay, so let's take a look on page one. We've got this Hebrews at a glance, which we're going to go back and revisit here in a little bit. I think that what they have there is division, and that division category has got some good points for us to look at here.

Some of the themes, and I frankly didn't get all of them because I would just keep on going and going and going. Some of the themes is a pattern of explanation and exhortation. We brought this out as we were going through Hebrews. Five cycles, if you will, of explanation and then exhortation. And the exhortations got pretty intense. One of the ones we quote here is Hebrews 5, 11-14.

Concerning him we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. I mean, this is a rather intense thing to write, right? You've become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. Is it possible in the Christian life to go backwards? Yes. This is saying that you guys, you were here and then you've gone backwards. Yes it is.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he is an infant but solid food is for the mature who because of practice have had their senses trained to discern good and evil. So that's an example of the rather intense assessments and exhortations that the author of Hebrews includes. And this is just one of them. These exhortations are often quite intense.

All right, we have another, the superiority of Christ. And with that, I want to go up to the table up at the top of page two, because you've got divisions. And the first one is Christ over the prophets. And why is Christ superior over the prophets? What does Hebrews bring out?

Yeah, this is Hebrews chapter 3 verses 1 through 6 where it says Moses was over his house and then Christ is over his house, whose house we are, right? So that makes a distinction, I'll call it a dispensational distinction between Israel and the church, right? Because we're not Israel. And we're not replacing Israel.

Okay, so you have Christ over the prophets. In the first couple of chapters, Christ is seen as the Son of God. He is the Son, capital S. And so this gives him superiority. The next is Christ over the angels. Now, why would it be important to have Christ over the angels?

Yes, Morgan? Yes, and as the Hebrews went out into the Greek culture, a lot of times the angels were looked upon in the names that you could name, right? And Christ was the name above every name? So, yeah, it was important to get that clear. If you go to some of those archaeological sites, angels are one of the things that they'll have in relief and statue and that kind of thing.

Yeah, Stan? It also has to do with creation. Ah, yes. Okay. And tell me about that. Angels are created. Christ is a deity. Yeah, the angels are created and Christ is the creator, right? The agent by which creation takes place. Huge difference. And by the way, some of the major cults kind of hide it that they look upon Christ as an angel. Even Christ is really Michael the Archangel. So yeah, this is an important point. Christ over the angels and he's not one of them. He's not one of them, unlike some of the cults that teach that. And by the way, cults and other major world religions will make too much of angels. This is an example. Judaism had a tendency to do that, make too much of angels.

Can you think of another one that makes a big deal about angels? Catholics, and they will call angels saints, which isn't the same thing. Another, how did the Koran get revealed? Gabriel the angel, right? So the Koran is entirely an angel revelation. So you have Islam that relies upon an angel heavily. So Christ over the angels, very important distinction. Christ is not an angel.

Next, Christ over Moses, and this is the passage that Stan brought up, that Moses had his house, Christ had his house, and the author of Hebrews makes it clear, it's of Christ's house that we are, not Moses. Right? It's of Christ's house that we are, not Moses. And that word house is a very good one to use too, because that's another one that's part of the family of words where we see a dispensational distinction between the church and Israel.

A very good passage to make that distinction. Then the priesthood. What is the priesthood of Christ? Is he of the same priesthood as the rest of the Jewish priests? And the high priest? The order of Melchizedek is a key point in Hebrews. A different order, not the one that runs the temple. And the order of Melchizedek is shown to be superior to the order that's running the temple. So Christ is superior in every way, and that's a key point.

In chapter 8, it starts talking about the New Covenant. Actually, there's earlier reference to it, but the New Covenant is talked about more in Hebrews than in the rest of the New Testament combined. And the New Covenant is the New Covenant for Israel. The New Covenant for Israel.

It's mentioned in about a dozen passages in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. And kind of the classic passage to look at is Jeremiah 31, 31. Nice easy repetitive number to remember. Jeremiah 31, 31 and the following verses talk about the new covenant for Israel. The new covenant for Israel will have the Jews knowing the law and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live it out. So no rabbis, no need for rabbis. Jeremiah even says that. You won't need a teacher for this. All Jews in the coming millennial kingdom will know the law and will be empowered to live it out.

There will be no sacrifices? Actually there will be. Ezekiel spells out what the temple will be like and there will be memorial sacrifices. blood sacrifice. Yes, but there will be memorial sacrifices in the Millennial Kingdom, but not in the new heavens and new earth. It will look pretty much the same. They will have priests. Yeah, and actually the temple will be much larger. Ezekiel describes the temple and it will be much larger than any past or even the Tribulation Temple. That will be the fourth temple during the Millennial Kingdom, and they'll have memorial sacrifices. You see, the sacrificial system under Moses looked forward, and the sacrificial system in the Millennial Kingdom will look backward.

Yes, right, the whole thing. But the New Covenant, it's important to make clear, the New Covenant was for Israel, that they would be empowered to know and live out the law. Remember, does the law save anybody? The law doesn't save anybody. Deuteronomy 28 is not the only place, but it's the classical passage that says, if you do these things, you'll be blessed. If you follow the law, you'll be blessed. If you don't, you'll be cursed.

And it actually gives the Jews future. gives the Jews future 3,000 almost 500 years ago. It gives the future of the Jews in Deuteronomy 28. Tells them what their future is going to be. And they're going to be brought back into the land. It would be a nation again, as we've seen happen. It would be a nation again, and be brought back into the land. Then, at the end of the tribulation, beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, all Jews will all have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, different from us, in that they will be empowered to know and live out the law, and therefore they will be blessed.

The problem now is, here's the law, 613 things to do and not do, but they're not empowered to know it and do it. So what do they do? They're cursed. So the law determines blessings and curses, not whether you're going to be saved. It is possible, it was possible under the Old Testament law, it was possible for a person to be saved by faith and yet err and be stoned to death. Make a mistake. Just pick up firewood on the wrong day. So you could be saved eternally, but still lose your life under the Law of Moses. It's pretty intense, huh? Okay, then we take a look here. The Sanctuary and Sacrifice. Did the sacrifices actually do something in the Old Testament Law? Did the sacrifices actually do something?

Yeah, it was a temporary thing. That was the main thing, it was temporary. It had to be repeated. It had to be a new high priest when the old one died off. Yep, you keep getting another one. connected to physical life. Yes, and you know, you did the sacrifice last year. That's not good for this year. You got to do it again, right? Yes.

But it was an example of where faith was necessary to reap the benefits of atonement. Because if you believed that God was going to relieve you or cover those sins for another year, then you demonstrated faith. And that was where faith showed up in the long run. Someone has said that the sacrifices covered the sin but sad the conscience.

Okay, yes. I don't know for sure, but I think so. Yeah, and I think that's the thing. People will say, well, I've done my sacrifice for this year, right? Or we've sent in the high priests on the Day of Atonement, right? And that'll be good until next year when we've got to do it again, right? And so, yeah, it was a matter of salving the conscience, but you had to do it again. So it had a time limit. He had a time limit.

Whereas with Christ, it was one sacrifice for all time. And that was what repeatedly from chapter 7 to chapter 10 is said, once for all, once for all, once for all. Christ did it once for all. One of the songs that we'll sing from time to time, Jesus paid it all, and that's what He said. said in the Gospel of John, where it's translated, it is finished, but it's an accounting term.

And it's all paid. And it's in the perfect tense, it's a completed past action, ongoing results in the future, consistent with Hebrews. Once done, perpetually valid. Okay? Jesus paid it all. Yes. But in both cases, the act of faith is necessary. Yes. Yep. It is faith on our part. Right?

And that's it. And I think that's one of the distinctives that we keep trying to bring forward here at Holly Hills is that we believe God does the rest. God says, that's it. I'll take care of everything else. We believe God does the rest. Touchstone verse that Jesus, when he was questioned, what should I do to do the works of God? And he said, believe on him.

Yes. It's amazing what Abraham was able to believe without having the progressive revelation that we have. Yeah, I mean there's an awful lot that he didn't know, but he looked to God and trusted the Lord to follow through in the right way and in the right things. Right? Yeah, Stan? But it was Noah and all the other people in chapter 11. Even Rahab because they had this faith.

They had limited knowledge frequently. Did they know that there would be a Savior that would be born in Bethlehem? live in Nazareth and then move to Capernaum. All those details were not revealed, but they put their trust in the Lord that He would provide, just like Abraham, God will provide the lamb. God will provide the lamb. The other thing is Hebrews brings out that what was done on earth is an illustration of the reality. And what's the reality? Where's the reality? In heaven. That's the reality.

What happens here is illustration at best. Illustration at best. Then it goes on into the faith chapter, the assurance of faith, in the end of chapter 10 and the end of chapter 11. And then the endurance of faith. We have this race, and we're to keep our eyes on Jesus who had his race. And so that is the presentation starting in chapter 12. And then personal exhortations in various areas in chapter 13.

Another key point is the Apostle Paul says you're not under law, you're under grace. Romans 6, 14 and 15 says that twice. You're not under law, you're under grace. So guess what most of Christendom teaches? You're under some laws and here they are. Right? You, in chapter 7, verses 4-6, you died to the law in order to be joined to Christ. So therefore, if I still cling to the law, do I doubt my joining to Christ? Yeah.

Here's Galatians 2.19. You've died to the law again. Right? You've died to the law.

How do you live life without the law? Because that's the thing. People under the law, it's just they can't get it out of their head. They can't understand, how am I going to live life if I don't have the law? The next verse, okay? I've been crucified with Christ, therefore that's the means by which I've died to the law, right? It is no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me.

That's how we live without the law. Does Christ need the law to be moral? Does Christ need the law to be righteous? No. He is moral and righteous by character, and if He is the one doing the living in me, I don't need the law. If I cling to the law, it says I don't need Christ.

It's a perpetual problem of what's on the inside versus what's visible on the outside. People want to have visible things and call them reality, whereas God looks on the heart and the attitude. You're always back to the good works. don't count when they're not done with the right attitude. Christ emphasized that so many times in his teaching, confronting the Pharisees and the religious establishment. But we do the same thing. And looking back on the history of that church for the ages, the emphasis was always on the performance aspect.

The confession, the penance, the giving. It's just hard to get away from the outward physical nature of life. What's interesting is the Catholics and the Orthodox and by that I mean Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jews and the Protestant churches all have a different breakdown of the Ten Commandments. It is different for each of those groups. I say I don't care. Because I'm not under it anyway, right? I'm not under it anyway. Yeah?

You know, things that are kind of interspersed into the scripture, like being born again. Paul saying that, you know, you aren't just a new man, but you're created as a new self. So, being in this new creation, say you're born again or whether you're created in the new self, then this allows you to be able to live out under grace instead of under law. So it's kind of like law is kind of a control for the play and the old man, where grace is given to those people who are born again and created as a new self as well as the Ephesians, right? Because you wouldn't understand how to live unless you actually had the Spirit dwelling within you, which is part of that created process.

The author of Hebrews conveys the message you're not under law but under grace and there are two distinctives however with how the author of Hebrews does that. One is the author of Hebrews says you're not under law but under grace but expresses it in an entirely different way than the Apostle Paul did.

That's part one. Part two is that the author of Hebrews focuses on the sacrificial system. Paul, however, in distinction, focused on personal applications of the law. He talks in Romans 7 about thou shalt not covet. So he talks about personal application of the law. The author of Hebrews focuses on the sacrificial system.

So two distinctives, although the message is the same. You're not under law, you're under grace. The word grace scattered seven times throughout the book of Hebrews. You're under grace. So a grace message, it's consistent with the Apostle Paul, but two distinctives in the approach. The next thing, is nautical terms, that is shipping terms, used in the book of Hebrews, and we have one page, page three here that has that.

An example, I won't go through all of them, Hebrews 2.1, one is, for this reason we must pay closer attention, prosecco, to fasten and anchor, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away, that is slip past the harbor. Do not drift away from it. And he continues to use those shipping terms throughout as if those terms were relevant and understood by these people. So that tells you it's a port city. He's not writing to the Jews in Jerusalem. He's not writing to Jews even in Antioch, which is more of an inland city. He's not writing to Jews in Damascus, an inland city, but it's a port city.

And when he uses these shipping terms, he quite understands them and knows that his readers will. And it's just amazing how much that's sewn into there. Without looking at it in depth, it's easy to miss that point. But shipping terms used from chapter 2 into chapter 13 and scattered in between. And then flip side, athletic terms. We looked at one of them, just when we looked at Hebrews 5.

Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice, this is habitual and regular exercise, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. This is trained as gymnazo. We get our word gym, gymnasium, you know, related to that. And then the Jews would practice and train for their athletic sports naked. It's the Greek root of, you know, gumnos actually means naked. So they would train naked, which was rather stunning to the Jews, but that's how they would do it. Hebrews 10, 32 and 33, remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict, athleisis?

Sound familiar? So a conflict of sufferings partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming shares with those who were so treated. So he goes on here with athletic terms. So athletic terms and shipping terms, lots of them. The focus on athletics was more of a Greek thing.

The Jews participated in it. Herod forced the Jews to pay for the 12 BC Olympics. The Jews funded it. Herod said, oh, we'll pay for it. And the Jews are saying, yeah, thanks. So the Jews admired and participated in that, although the nakedness was something that they had a little bit of trouble with. Now, there are some other things that I didn't get to, and you mentioned it, Al. I didn't include in here that I'd like us to revisit.

One of those things is the book of Hebrews keeps focusing on better. Better. And why is better important in the book of Hebrews? Well, as you would point out in the sermon series, These people were in danger of slipping back into the old system because it was comfortable, it was well known. Sure, they were familiar with it. And it's very easy to say, this new stuff I don't really understand and I'm not quite sure how to do it and relate to it. Maybe I'll try to mix almost like the Galatians there. Okay.

I was going to say also, I mean, through the book of Hebrews, you can see that it's a process. I mean, training the senses, going to solid food and milk, etc. etc. etc. So you have this goal to achieve, to be better, to strive for, to look up instead of down.

And I was going to say, it amazes me the negativity of Roman culture and how none of that comes out in scripture. They only look at the positive aspects like the athletic contest, the shipping wars, but it doesn't say anything about the decadent Roman Caesars and their lifestyles and all this other stuff that was going on. It's not in scripture. It's amazing. Let's ask this question.

What are the things that Christians, and I'm just talking generally, what are the things that Christians are tempted to get persuaded by and pulled back into? What things do Christians in our culture, in our day, what are they tempted to get pulled back into or persuaded or influenced by? The culture. And what aspects of culture?

Native parts. The discreet, sinful nature. Everybody's doing it, but that's okay. Right. Other people are doing it, so there's kind of the, this is popular, and this is accepted, and all that. What's wrong with it? Yeah, what's wrong with it? Okay. So, that's an aspect of the culture. Yeah?

There's also, unfortunately, in the evangelical arm of the church, We are tempted to judge the culture. You know, we do the judging of the culture instead of saying, well, God will judge and God will, vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay. Our job is to encourage and edify one another and build up in faith. It is not for us to judge the culture, in the sense, it's hard to put into words, but I think you know what I'm talking about. It's young people growing up in a church where it's about judgmental attitude outside.

It's all about, I'm okay, and they're not okay. Yes, Christians are influenced by the culture, but I think The ones who believe in being born again, who have an orthodox faith, are more tempted to think of themselves as having arrived at a better point.

And there's a pride of position. You're back to that pride versus humility. You're back to that doing things. I don't smoke and I don't chew and I don't go with girls who do. And somehow that makes me better. Yeah, somehow I've got rules. We're back to pleasing God by doing something for Him. As though we're repaying Him. Or, you know, Jesus paid it all to Him I owe, as Julius pointed out. Externalism, essentially. Externalism. Which is the problem that the Pharisees had. And the Sadducees. Externalism. The solutions are all visible on the outside, right?

Instead of what the emphasis is in the New Testament, and it actually got the Christians in trouble with the rest of the culture, because with the pagans and with the Jews, they couldn't see any visible evidence of the religion. Why don't you wash your hands? Why do you do these things on the Sabbath?

Yes, so for both the Jews and the pagans, they say, well, you guys must be atheists. I don't see any visible evidence of your religion. I mean, you don't have temples. You don't do sacrifices. And so both the pagans and the Jews would look at the Christians and say, you guys are...

Crazy, you know. You have this faith and I don't see any outside trappings to go along with it. So one of the temptations for Christians is to fall into externalism of some kind. Whether it's moral externalism, whether it is putting on a bunch of external physical things to try to convince people that it's real. When the reality is all the things that really count, biblically, are things that you can't see.

Where have you been blessed with every spiritual blessing? In the heavenly places. Can anybody see that? No. Where do you have a citizenship? We're to set our mind on things above where nobody can see it. So it's something that the world doesn't understand, and the tendency for Christians has been over the centuries to have something more external and visible. And basically it's to please the world and the flesh, it's not to please God.

The best illustration of that to me is the example of the publican in the Pharisee prayer. The Pharisee who supposedly had everything, and the publican who had nothing. And yet, whose prayer was accepted, and why? It wasn't because of external things that he had. It was because of, like Al said earlier, the internal change that had taken place, not because of the things that he had, but because of the awareness of who he was.

The church can slip into rituals and all sorts of external things. None of that is emphasized in scripture. Even legalism is a kind of externalism. Because we've got, you're not supposed to eat this, wear that, go here, all those kinds of things. It's another means of getting pulled into externalism, like these Jews and Hebrews were.

I've kept all these commandments since my youth. That's right, yeah. Here's the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, and he says, I've got this and this and this and this and this, and he goes through seven things, and he says it's all scubalon. It's sewage. It's sewage. And what's of value? Knowing Christ.

And people don't see that. So these Hebrews were tempted to go to externalism, and we maybe aren't tempted to go do the sacrifices in Jerusalem. You can't do that now. The Muslims won't let you do anything like that. We're not tempted that way, but Christians are tempted towards externalism of various kinds.

So what the author of Hebrews keeps pointing to is Christ is better. Christ's ministry, that you can't see, as our high priest, is better. Better. What God has for us in reality, our blessings, our position, our citizenship, his high priestly ministry is better.

And slipping towards externalism, which is a constant temptation among Christians. Whether it's coming up with legalism, that's externalism. Whether it's coming up with more external trappings, like get on, put robes on the pastor and let's do all these little rituals and all this stuff. Any slipping towards externalism is a drifting to worldly influence in the flesh. Yeah. When I was first saved, Well, I shouldn't say first saved. There wasn't a second saved.

Anyway, I was a junior in college, and shortly after my graduation, I was drafted into the Army, so I was a young Christian, young in faith as well as in age. And I was stationed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and had a friend who lived in Philadelphia, and I was invited to come spend the weekend and go to church with my friend and visit. And after the church service, around the dinner table, instead of talking about the elements of the service, of building up our faith and encouraging one another, I was chastised for not wearing the appropriate dress and for not putting anything in the offering. There's nothing said about anything spiritual whatsoever.

It's externalism. Even in just the simple little stuff like that. The valuable things brought out in the New Testament are all things that don't go towards externalism. blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ and none of it's visible. And yet there is a sense in which it does show. Yes.

My best students the last 10 years of my teaching career of study, and knew right from wrong, because most of them, it was in a Christian context, even though they didn't make an issue of it. And I could tell, the first day in class, who my students were who had it right. There was something about the way they said things, the way they looked. There is an external showing forth of attitude that does draw people to want to know more about God.

So even though the important things are internal, they work their way outward over time. It's actually progressive. It doesn't happen overnight. If you are actually growing in faith, there are more things that show in the way that you talk. Let's talk about that because I think this is a key distinction. There's an awful lot of Christendom that defines things by how things look on the outside that isn't really biblical, but does true Christianity show up in the outside world in some way? I think so. Pardon? Faith without works is dead. Okay. And even the Apostle Paul talks about good works. Tells Titus, you know, here's the Cretan culture is a horrible culture. And he talks to them about good works. So good works, yeah, it does matter. Yeah. Two things.

One, if you go through what you have here for Hebrews and Ignatius, the last little section here is exhortation to love. And then the second to last is faith. And you get to that point. I mean, look at all that he discussed and talked about before he ever got to the endurance of faith and the exhortation of love. It's amazing. This is the latter part of the book.

And I was also going to say, when you were talking about legalism, it just came to me. One of the most Insidious forms of legalism, as far as I'm concerned, is political correctness. It's another form of legalism. You must do this, but there's actually no law and no punishment. But you still are motivated to do this because it's a cultural thing. That's so insidious. And it's another kind of externalism, right? It's another kind of externalism.

The reality is that the things that really matter and do get expressed are not external trappings that I put on, or legalism, but notice what the exhortation is in Hebrews. Faith. Love. Do those things show? Yes, they show, but it's not because I put on some certain robe, and it's not because I have some certain title. So the things that really matter The Bible talks about repeatedly faith, love, and hope, right? The Bible talks about repeatedly, but they're not something that you can bring about by law. You're going to love one another, I'm going to stone you, right? What?

Law doesn't help in the things that matter. Externalism doesn't help in the things that matter. And so the author of Hebrews keeps bringing up Christ better. Christ better. And keeps focusing on that versus the externalism that they were tempted to. We're tempted to externalism too. And many Christians fall for it. And it even gets enforced in certain churches. But the reality is we're exhorted to things that really matter and matter for either the rest of your life, like faith, or they matter for eternity, like love and grace. As you were talking of those things, I think of the exhortations that Paul wrote.

Joy, peace, rest, satisfaction, the kinds of qualities that scripture puts a value on. May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace. in believing that you may be overflowing with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit I mean his prayer for the Roman Church that has meant so much to me these last several months God gives joy and peace and rest and you can't see it but when people say how should I pray for you I say I've got it in scripture. How you pray for me is the main way we pray for one another. That we might be built up and encouraged and keep on keeping on and trust God. It shows in the attitude in the way we do things. So there is the external outpouring of love, like you say, the basic thing. By this shall all men know you are my disciples, that you love one another.

One of the things that comes out strongly in the book of Hebrews is our spiritual senses. Example, looking unto Jesus, Hebrews 12. Our spiritual senses, not our physical senses. And there's a spiritual equivalent in the New Testament to every single one of our physical senses. There's a spiritual equivalent. And notice that here with the book of Hebrews, at the same time we get emphasized, Christ is better, better, better.

All the things that matter are things that are not legal and things that are not external. If we slip back into externalism, if we slip back into legalism, and many Christians are pulled by that, then we're picking something that's not better. Why would you do that if Christ is better than all that? Right? Christ is better than all that.

And that's, I think, a key thing as we look at the book of Hebrews, is we look at it and say, well, we're not tempted to go back to the sacrifices in Jerusalem. Jews haven't been able to do that for 19 centuries and more. But Christians are tempted to slip under legalism, to slip under externalism, instead of counting the things that they can't see, and can't touch, and can't feel with their physical senses. but are things that are far better centered on Christ. Look at Hebrews. We wrestle with it. This is not an irrelevant issue. We wrestle with it because we're tempted to go to externalism instead of looking at the things that are infinitely valuable but you can't see and touch.

Yeah, Stan? equivalent of each and every one of the senses. It's a confirmation of the new creation, which we were talking about earlier. If that wasn't there, you would question, is there such a thing as a new creation? But you're saying, by showing that these senses are still there, they've just changed. What happens is those senses get turned on. when we believe.

There's a passage in the last half of Ephesians chapter 1, and it's usually translated, I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be opened. Bad translation. It's perfect tense. I pray that the eyes of your hearts, having been opened once for all, perpetually, that you might see.

So for believers, those senses get turned on. The unbeliever can't see into the spiritual realm. Essentially, they're atheists because they don't know God and can't see. Their spiritual senses are not turned on. They can't sense into the spiritual realm. You and I, because we're believers, can. Our senses have been turned on. having eyes they don't see, having ears they don't hear. God's not listening to them. Because you're not trusting me and believing me, your eyes aren't really seeing me, and your ears aren't really hearing. But I have not seen, nor heard, nor have entered into the heart of man.

The things that God has prepared for those who love Him, trust Him, and believe Him. Amen. Well, let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for this precious book of Hebrews with all the great things, and thank you that the things that we don't see and don't touch and don't hear and don't feel are the things that are actually most valuable, and they are indeed better. We thank you for what you've revealed here in this very special book of Hebrews. We just pray in Jesus' name. Amen.