Concluding Remarks | Hebrews 13:15-25
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[00:00:00] Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13. We are gonna read verses 15 to 25, so again, if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's Word And if all goes well, we will be finishing the book of Hebrews today, looking at these passages. So again, Hebrews chapter 13, beginning in verse 15. Again, if you're able, please stand.
Through Him then, through Christ, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders, submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.
Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct [00:01:00] ourselves honorably in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I might be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Amen. But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, obedience to His Word.
Please be seated.[00:02:00]
So apparently, history tells us that our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, drank no less than a gallon of coffee per day. No less than a gallon of coffee. He served as president from 1901 to 1909, and in the year 1919, Maxwell House coffee adopted a, an advertising slogan, and it went like this, and most of you will hopefully remember it.
It's still in use today. "Good to the last drop." Good to the last drop. General Foods bought Maxwell House in the 1930s, and they started attributing this statement to Theodore Roosevelt. They said that he said it while drinking a cup of Maxwell coffee. Well, years later, they had to rescind, and they had to quit saying that because it was all mythology.
There was nothing true about it. But for whatever reason, that slogan, "Good to the last drop," jumped out at [00:03:00] me this week, and I thought I would come up with another advertising slogan, and it goes like this. You may want to write it down. The Book of Hebrews, good to the last syllable The book of Hebrews, good to the last syllable.
We'll be looking at verses 15 and 25 today, the 11 last verses. But I want you to... The author goes all the way to the end. He gives it his all, all the way to the end, and there are unexpected treasures in these passages. He begins with more exhortations in verse 15, 16, 17, and a few more sprinkled throughout.
Worship is discussed. And kids, there'll be something on your outline when we get there, but as Christians, we're to offer sacrifice. They're different than the old covenant sacrifices, but they're worship. There's a prayer request, "Pray for us." And then more worship. Beginning in verses 20 to 21, uh, the author actually [00:04:00] prays for his readers.
There's an invocation. There's a pray- a prayer that God would bless the readers, that God would strengthen the readers. And then the Word is held forth. In verse 22, "Bear with this exhortation." And then in verses 23 and 24, there's an update on fellow Christians and a reminder to Christian charity. Another way of looking at that is the author gives some marching orders, some instructions.
And then verse 25 closes with a benediction. And amazingly, when you look at that, it's a mini church service, and we can use these passages, and we can examine our church service. How do we stack up? Are we respectful in the way we worship God? Do we take it serious? I often think, and I may come back to this analogy, but if, if you were invited to the White House, and you liked the president enough to go, and you [00:05:00] went to the H- right- White House, how would you dress?
How would you behave? Would you nonchalantly get up, leave the Oval Office, and go get yourself a cup of coffee? Would you run to the bathroom a dozen times? Are we respectful in our worship? Do we honor God the way we worship? There's several things in your bulletin, and, uh, one of them is it's a half page, and on one side there's a fill-in-the-blank, and on the other side there's a, uh, an outline of the book of, or the outline of chapter 13, and then there's some tables and some Bible verses, and we'll get to those momentarily.
But number one on your outline, continued exhortations. Continued exhortations. And kids, this is on your handout, and the first two verses, verses 15 and 16, is your fill-in-the-blank. You want to finish the passage on your handout. So we read in verse 15, "Through Him, through Him then let us [00:06:00] continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.
That is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name, and do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with- w- for with such sacrifices God is pleased." So there's quite a number of things that we need to talk about here, and I think the first two words, "Through Him," we need to remind ourselves that all we have, all we do is through Him.
You see, these words remind us that Jesus is our sole mediator, that He is the only mediator in the church. We no longer need a specialized priesthood. In fact, the Apostle Peter, and elsewhere in Scripture we are taught that we are priests. This is fascinating. In 1 Peter 2:5, "You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house."
And we find out from the [00:07:00] words of Peter we are the temple. And Paul repeats this in 1 Corinthians. We are the temple of God. We are the new temple that Ezekiel spoke of. It is the church, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone, and He is building us into a temple, a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We are the temple. We are the priesthood. We should be s- serving Jesus Christ, but it is always and continually through Him. We access the Father through Him. That is one of the many reasons, even though we're actually not commanded to do this, and yet most of us will end our prayers with, "In the name of Jesus," "In Christ's name."
Now the Apostle John talks about it. The Apostle John says, "Ask in my name and I will give it to you." But it's, it, nowhere in Scripture do we read that we're [00:08:00] supposed to tack on "in your name." That's an attitude. That's a belief. And you're not wrong in doing it. I'm not gonna stop doing it. There's a, there's a sense of proclamation when we do it, and it's okay, but it's actually not necessary We do it actually because of verses like this.
Because even when we pray, even when we access the Father and we know that He is listening, it is only because of the work of Jesus Christ. It is only through Him. It is because He is our mediator, and the author of Hebrews, in some of the very last words of his epistle, is reminding his readers You are something in Christ, but it's only through Christ.
And through Him, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. And the Greek is pretty clear. This is an ongoing activity. Our life should be characterized by sacrifice. And the sacrifice here is praise to God. And it's not [00:09:00] just lips. We don't just praise God with our lips, although we should do that.
But how do you live your life? If your neighbor were to follow you around for a week, would he be impressed how your life is worshipful to God? How your life brings glory and honor to God? How your life recognizes God's presence in it? And he defines this idea, and throughout the Bible, this idea of praise and thanksgiving is intimately connected.
So we're always supposed to offer a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips. So here is speaking. Here is praying. Here is acknowledgement. They give thanks to His name. How often do you thank God? I dare say that for some of us, and we even get lazy here, the only time we thank God is before a meal.
And yet our life should be characterized by thanking God. Kids, there's some questions [00:10:00] in your handout, but mom and dad, this is every bit as important for you, and that is, what are the Christian sacrifices? What are the Christian sacrifices? And our author speaks of two. Paul adds a third, so I'm going to include all of them.
But the first sacrifice that we offer is the sacrifice of praise, and our author defines it as thanksgiving. It's hard to praise God and not immediately fall into thanksgiving. Thank you that you are who you are. Thank you that you've done what you've done. Thank you that you care about me. I am so far below you, and as I worship you and as I praise you, I remind myself of that.
And yet how often do we put our desires above God's? You see, one way to rectify that problem is a sacrifice of praise, continual praise, which is also thanksgiving, a continual speaking of God's excellencies. The Apostle Paul adds another one. I think it's fitting to add here. But [00:11:00] kids, on your second one, we are to present our bodies, and we present our bodies by renewing our minds, and it is for obedience.
And I, I love the words of Paul in Romans chapter 12. You're probably very familiar with this verse. In Romans chapter 12, the first two verses, "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice." It's the same word that the author of Hebrews uses, and it is meant to reflect Old Testament worship, but it is an upgrade because we offer different sacrifices.
We no longer offer bloody sacrifices because of the completed work of Christ, but we offer thanksgiving. We offer praise A holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And I just want to say something because we tend as Christians, for whatever reason, we tend to downplay logic and reason.
And even our translations reflect that [00:12:00] because literally what this verse says, and the New American translates, uh, which is your spiritual service of worship. But literally, and I think more accurately, is your reasonable, your logical service of worship. You see, if you think about God, if you think about what God has done, you would not withhold your life.
It would be unreasonable. It would be ignorant. It would be the height of folly to withhold from Jesus Christ if you understood who He was, if you understood the majesty of God, if you understood the humility of Christ becoming a man, if you understood the humiliation of Christ going to a cross And experiencing, in a way that we can never wrap our heads around, an eternity of hell while hanging on that tree.
The wrath of God the Father while hanging on that tree. It would be so absurd, so unreasonable, so illogical that we would not [00:13:00] want to sacrifice our lives. Verse two, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed." Literally, so you understand the word, be metamorphosed. And I looked it up, it's a real word.
Be metamorphosed. I tried to make another word, couldn't come up with one. Experience metamorphosis. Experience a transformation. This might not be the best of analogies, but my, my daughter a couple months ago got some, uh, what are they called? Uh, those things that turn into- Caterpillars. Thank you.
Caterpillars. And she had these caterpillars in the, in the jar, and we got to watch them metamorphosize. That's not a word, I don't think, but, uh, and turn into these beautiful butterflies. It's actually an apt picture of the Christian life. It's an apt picture of what God is doing in your life as He sanctifies you.
And Paul says we're to do that, and how do we do that? By the renewing of your mind. And again, the, the word in the Greek could be translated [00:14:00] by the renewing of your thinking. God expects us to think. God expects us to reason. God expects us to grapple with the text, to reason through the text, and then apply that text to our lives, and it will transform the way in which we think, so much so that we will prove, we will demonstrate what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
And the last sacrifice that the writer of Hebrews talks about is doing good and sharing. And I just want to point something out. This idea of offering praise and thanksgiving, that's the greatest commandment. The idea of doing good and sharing, that's the second greatest commandment. So the author of Hebrews agrees explicitly, explicitly with Jesus.
Listen to Jesus' words in Matthew 22. He is asked, "What is the great commandment of the law?" And Jesus replies, "You shall love Yahweh your God." He's citing the Old Testament. "You will love Yahweh your God with all your [00:15:00] heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." Exact same word used by Paul, with all your thinking.
How you interpret reality. How you interpret what's before you. How you look at history. How you look at science. How you look at love. How you look at your marriage. How you look at your children. All loving Christ first, all loving Him. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
And the author of Hebrews picks up on that in verse 16, "And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." This word for neglect, it literally means to become unattentive, to care nothing about something, and we're not to neglect doing good. And as Christians, [00:16:00] w- we twist this in a knot because as Christians, we hear we're supposed to be good, and then we think that somehow by being good, we add to our salvation.
That is not the message of the Bible. That is not the message of the Book of Hebrews. The message of Hebrews is Jesus is superior to all things, and Jesus has done it all. So don't abandon Jesus. Don't turn your back on Jesus And because you love Christ, you'll want to do good works. You'll want to share.
You'll want to love those other people who love Jesus Christ. So we're not to neglect doing good and sharing, and, and that idea means exactly what it means in, in Greek. Do you share with one another? And I just wanted to point out, because you guys do a really good job at this. You know, there's always egg cartons back there, and just so you know, I wish I could get rid of the kitchen.
I wish there was a different place and it wasn't in the sanctuary. It is a temptation we don't need. [00:17:00] And yet you can look back there and you can see signs of love You see egg cartons. You see a freezer full of food for a family that's about to have a baby. You see treats that people have come to share with others.
And that's what this sharing is. And the men have started something. Neil's not here so I can talk about him. But he's gathered the men, and at least once a month we- we're trying to find a project, and we go around and, and we help each other out. And that's what the author is talking about here. And this is just incredible to me because he says, "Do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."
We are pleasing to God. And it ought to blow your mind if you take into account everything I've said so far how much lower than God we are, how unequal to God we are, and yet God is pleased with His people when they walk in [00:18:00] obedience. Beloved, if God so loved us, 1 John chapter 4, we also ought to love one another.
And we should not tire of doing good, and that's why we read Galatians chapter 6 at the beginning of the service because Galatians chapter 6 speaks of not growing weary in doing good. And Galatians chapter 6 comes at the end of the book of Galatians. And just to remind you about that book, Paul is dealing with a false gospel.
In, in the entire book, Paul is dealing with a false gospel. It is a Jesus plus gospel. Yes, you need to believe in Jesus Christ, but you need to do this. You need to eat certain foods. You need to be circumcised. You need to do certain ceremonial things. And Paul is dealing with a false gospel. We have that same false gospel today in various churches and organizations.
Jesus plus
He's dealing with a false [00:19:00] gospel promoted by false teachers who argue for a false view of the law. He's dealing with a false understanding of justification by faith, or to use Paul's words, justification apart from works. And again, I've already mentioned that we get it so confused. You see, faith brings about salvation, but faith also brings about a changed life, and we need to reorient our thinking.
My works do nothing. My works, as we'll see, are a gift from God. They demonstrate my salvation. They demonstrate my saving faith. And yes, God, in His kindness, will bless you for the kind of life you live. But that is not out of obligation. That is out of love. That is out of mercy. That is out of kindness
Ultimately he, Paul was dealing with a false view of Christ. But by the time we get to [00:20:00] chapters five and six, Paul starts to apply this theology, and he warns them about sin. He instructs them, "If a brother falls into sin, kindly restore that person. Kindly go to that person." And most of us are scared to death to confront a f- a, a brother in sin
But Paul, as well as Jesus, says, "Go to that person. Restore that sinner." And all the while remember that you too can be tempted, you too can fall into sin. And then Paul goes on in Galatians 6 to remind us about self-responsibility and humility, about supporting our teachers and sowing and reaping. But it's verses 9 and 10 that I want to read to you again because it's, it lines up perfectly with not neglecting doing good.
Paul writes in chapter 6 verse 9, "Let us not lose heart." Let us not lose our motivation. Let us not lose enthusiasm. Are you enthusiastic [00:21:00] about doing good? Do you know how to define good? Because so often we fall into this trap and we want to become the definers of good just like Adam and Eve. That was their sin.
They wanted to be the definers of what is good and what is evil, and yet we must acknowledge that God defines it, not us. So don't lose heart, don't lose enthusiasm in doing good, for in due time we will reap. And you see, that's where we run into problem because the sowing's what's hard. And I think of the Apostle Paul and I think of his life, and the Apostle Paul did not reap anything of this life.
Listen to my preposition. He did not reap anything of this life. What Paul reaped were spiritual blessings. What Paul reaped were souls. What Paul reaped were relationships that were gonna continue on into eternity
Sometimes we're impatient for [00:22:00] the reaping, and we lose enthusiasm about the sowing. But Paul goes on, "Do not grow weary. Do not give out. Do not become exhausted. Do not lose your strength." And so much is implied there. What are the things we should be doing to maintain our strength? What is the Christian workout?
The scriptures, church, prayer, confession, fellowship. Am I working out?
For in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, while we have the time, and the Bible repeatedly reminds us our life is but a whisper. We have such a short time on this earth, and yet we're commanded, "Let us do good." And then we're given a hierarchy. Let us do good to all people.
That includes everyone, but Paul makes it very clear, but especially to those who are of the household of God. [00:23:00] We help the church first, and from there we move out. And as we help the church and as we strengthen the church, we have more hands to help other neighbors and other things. And that's why everything we do here, the primary, it's designed to teach you the Word, to do my best to teach you the Word, to do my best to get you to understand how to study it yourself, and from there we branch out.
From there we're involved with other pastors. From there we're involved in community events. From there we're involved in parenting and discipleship. But we begin with the Word. We begin with the household of faith. Number two on your outline, a prayer request. A prayer request. And we can do this pretty quickly.
But Paul writes in verse 18, "Pray for us," not Paul, whoever wrote the book of Hebrews. Now, I've told you before, I think Paul had a hand in it. I think it was a combination of Paul and Luke. Not a hill to die on, 'cause I can't prove it. [00:24:00] But the author writes, "Pray for us." Pray for us, for we're sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.
And when you first read this, at least to me anyway, it seems awkward. You expect to read, "Pray for us, that we conduct ourselves honorably in all things." But he inserts, "We have a good conscience." And I think that's important. But let's start with prayer. And I want to be really careful here, and if I'm gonna be careful, you need to be careful
Hear what I'm saying. Okay? Because oftentimes Greek words come into English and we think, well, that's what the word actually means, and it's not always so. Okay? But interestingly, interestingly enough, this... the, the Greek word for prayer here is basically prosecute Prosecute. Now obviously we're not prosecuting God, but we're going to God.
But it does give us a [00:25:00] good picture of what it means to pray, because prayer is continuous, continuous. Prayer is repetitious. I mean, I, some of the movies I like the best, some of the shows I like the best are lawyer shows. Okay? But when you watch a show about a good prosecutor, that man is relentless. He's going after the person with all the evidence he has, with all the examples he has, with all the good witnesses he has.
And I think that's a good picture. Do you prosecute God as you pray? Not in a sense that you're trying to condemn Him, but you take everything you have with you. And here's how we present evidence to God. We pray His promises. You see, if you were to do a study of all, all the prayers in the Bible, they're praying God's promises back to Him.
And that's why we can get on our knees and we can confess our sins and we can do it with confidence, not because we're proud, not because we're arrogant, not because we expect God to serve us, but He's promised. We're simply [00:26:00] praying His promises back. Do you pray the promises of God back? Is your prayer repetitive?
I tried to watch a, a movie this week, and I'm sure it's, no offense if you've seen it, but it's your typical Christian m- movie, so it's probably not that good. So if you've seen it, don't hold it against me. It's called The War Room. Okay? I wasn't able to watch it 'cause something was happening on Angel, uh, so I couldn't get it started.
But I know the basic storyline. A woman, uh, designs this little prayer closet, and she calls it her war room, and that's where she goes to pray, and you just see amazing thing happen, that happens in the movie. Do you treat prayer as battle? See, it might be a corny movie. It might be your typical Christian movie But the ideology is sound.
Prayer is battle. Prayer is a war. Prayer is to be repeated. Prayer is to take place over a lifetime. But he speaks of having a good [00:27:00] conscience, and I just thought it would be worth our time to explore that idea. And the conscience is... Literally what the word means is we see through. We see through our conscience.
And I think one of the primary passages about conscience is found in Romans chapter 2. And in Romans chapter 2, beginning in the 14th verse, we read these words: "For when Gentiles, for when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them."
So our conscience is how we see our behavior. Our conscience will either excuse the behavior that we, we do, or it will convict us of the behavior that we do. But how can we have a clear conscience? How do we as Christians develop a clear conscience? Well, I think it's as profound as it is [00:28:00] simple. We go to the Word.
Do you know the law of God? If you went to a neighbor's house and you broke something, what would the law of God say? How... What would that fall un- What's the Christian response? Do you, do, do we know that? What about seat belts? Does the law of God have anything to say about seat belts? Pool fences. Fences around your roof.
How do we apply that? Do you know the law of God? Listen to Paul's words in the book of Colossians. "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you." And that word, richly dwell within you, literally you could paraphrase it, be at home. Is the word of Christ at home in your hearts? Do you know how to wield the sword of the Spirit?
And in that passage in Ephesians, Paul uses a unique word for, for word because it's, it's a specific word. Do [00:29:00] you know the Bible well enough to use specific passages as you make application in your life? Have you trained your conscience to think God's thoughts after Him? It's hard to read verses like this and not think of Luther's words at the Diet of Worms.
Because these are famous words, and I just like to read them, so I'm gonna read them to you. But I want you to... Luther had a conscience trained by scripture, and he wasn't going to give that up. Could you say these words and not only mean them, but they would actually be true of you? Luther is accused of all these things.
He's asked to recant, recant and he doesn't. He, he doesn't recant anything he said. He doesn't recant any of his writings. And he ends it like this, "If then I am not convinced by proof from the Holy Scripture or by cogent reasons," and we've already explored the idea that the Scripture [00:30:00] expects us to reason.
It expects us to apply the truths of Scripture and reason through those truths. "If I am not convinced by the proof from Holy Scripture or by cogent reason, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's Word, I neither can nor will I retract anything.
For it cannot be s- either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen." Luther had a mind trained by Scripture. He had a conscience trained by Scripture. Are you actively in the process of training your mind with Scripture? Number three on your outline, and I, I put it that way.
I've got benediction, I've got it crossed out, and then I put invocation. And this is not a hill to [00:31:00] die on, but a lot of people will start the, what's called the benediction, and we'll talk about that momentarily here. I think it starts in verse 25, okay? But what we see here is a prayer. We see an invocation.
We see the author praying for assistance, praying for a blessing on the people that he's written this letter to. And listen to his prayer. "Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord." He begins by reminding his readers, and so often we need to be reminded of this, God is a God of peace.
But there's a specific application, and he's been referring to this concept throughout his book
We can approach the throne of grace. We have peace with God. The Apostle Paul, uh, also talks about this. In Romans 5:1, "Therefore, having been [00:32:00] justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." In Colossians 1:20, "And through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross."
You see, we can't forget the warnings in the book. God is a God of peace, and the peace that he's specifically talking about is gospel peace. He's talking about the peace that Jesus has brought about in our lives. But we only have that peace if we don't leave Him, if we don't forsake Him, if we don't abandon Him
So God is the one that creates peace between Himself and man. And how did He create this peace? By bringing up from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep. And one of the things that we've been talking about throughout this book is what I call hyperlinks, is where the author either quotes an Old Testament passage or he appeals to an Ol- Old Testament passage.
And I want to challenge you with something, and this goes contrary to liberal theological thinking. Sadly, it goes [00:33:00] contrary to some evangelical theological thinking. But I think the author is throwing out another hyperlink here. I'm not 100% sure which one it would be. I have an idea. It might be John chapter 10.
The author's writing in the mid to late '60s. I believe the Gospel of John was probably already in circulation. He might be referring to the Gospel of Matthew or Mark because both of them speak and describe Jesus as a shepherd, a spiritual shepherd. He might be speaking of 1 Peter, but specifically in 1 Peter 5:4, we s- we read of the Chief Shepherd, the Ruler of all shepherds, and it seems to correspond with this idea of the Great Shepherd.
And whether that's what the author was doing or not, that's how we should read our Bibles. When we see that, we should recognize that at least, at the very least, the Holy Spirit put a hyperlink in there. And so we need to go back, and we need to read about Jesus being the Good [00:34:00] Shepherd. So I'm just gonna read a couple passages in John chapter 10.
In John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." Somebody who is willing to lay down his life for you is somebody you can trust. Somebody who is not just willing, but has laid down his life for you, is something you need to remind yourself of on a regular and a constant basis because that is why your sins are forgiven.
That is why you can trust Jesus. That is why when He says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," you know it's true 'cause He went to the cross for you. And if you study the cross, you know how humiliating it was. But the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. In verse 14 of John 10, "I am the good shepherd.
I know my own and my own know me." You can have assurance of salvation because you know Jesus Christ, but more importantly, He knows you. And that is both comforting and frightening [00:35:00] because He knows your weaknesses. He knows your sin. He knows your shortcomings. And so often we don't pray about these things.
So often we don't reach out to the church about these things. We don't allow the church to be the church because this is embarrassing. Everyone here has embarrassing sins And everyone here needs the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd works in the lives of His people through His people He is willing to lay down His life, and He knows you.
But what's even more amazing is you know Him. You truly know God. You truly know Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And how did this all come about? Through the blood of the eternal covenant. Because God entered into covenant with Himself. Theologians refer to it as the covenant of redemption. Jesus would become incarnate and go to the cross.
The Holy Spirit would be sent out by Father and Son [00:36:00] and apply God's plan of salvation in our lives. And then Jesus became incarnate, the covenant of grace. And Jesus went and He shed His blood, and because Jesus shed His blood, that activated and made sure and made possible all the promises of God Zechariah in chapter 9 says this, "As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit."
In Ezekiel 37:26, "I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply them, and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever." And when we get to the New Testament, we find out we are the sanctuary. That's why it's in the midst of us, because we are stones in that spiritual building, again, Jesus the chief cornerstone
Verse 21. "In [00:37:00] all of this, may God," the may is implied in the, in the grammar, "May God," and then there's a parentheses, "who raised Jesus because of the eternal covenant." So we're reminded of why this is true, and then he says, "May he equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ."
There's that through again. There's that mediation again. There's who we need to rely on again. "To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen."
This word "equip," it's an interesting word. It's a word that means to put in proper condition. You see, prior to Christ Jesus, you were in a defective condition, and turning your life over to Jesus, God begins to put you in the right condition, in the proper condition. In fact, one author put it this way, "Restore to a state of functional perfection."
And I don't know if this will help you, but, you know, relating it to cars, you may have a car problem and, and your car needs to be tuned up or something. [00:38:00] It's, it's clunking or it's making a noise, so either you do the work yourself or you take it to a mechanic, and there's this common saying when you get the car back and it's running really well, "She's purring like a kitten."
That's what sanctification is. Sanctification is to bring you to a state of functional perfection, to bring you to a state that you could be described as purring like a kitten, and God is gonna do this, and He's working it out in your lives even now, and He's doing this so that you will do His will. But here's what's fascinating.
We are to do His will. That's human volition, and this is something that we find throughout the scriptures, and it is something that trips us up. But throughout the scriptures, we are commanded to do His will. We're commanded to do good works, and at the same time, He is working in us. So we have human volition, human will, human obedience side by side with divine sovereignty.
Paul teaches the same thing in Ephesians [00:39:00] chapter 2. Listen to Ephesians 2:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." We are responsible to do good works. We are responsible to walk in good works. We are responsible to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this thing called sanctification, and yet we're His workmanship, and God prepared these good works beforehand, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, and the authors of scripture have no problem placing them side by side
But I did wanna address something else because we do this in our service and it's in the text He's going to equip, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen. That's a doxology. That's a [00:40:00] doxology, and our work, our, our book ends in a benediction.
But it ends with the word amen, and I wanted to explore that concept with you because we say amen throughout our service, and I'm just gonna be honest with you, so if it hurts, I don't apologize, but we don't always do a good job. And the elders have been putting our heads together trying to come up with a way, how can we help lead the congregation to say the amen and do it in a way that's unified and glorifying?
But if you look in your bulletin, I've given you a chart, and I've given you every use of the word amen in Scripture, whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament, and it's used 53 times in both the Hebrew and the Greek. There's an additional 50 times that I didn't include, but it's because it's the way that Jesus uses the amen, and I'll comment on that eventually.
But Jesus uses the amen in 25 additional verses, and it's always the double amen. "Truly, truly, I say to you," "Amen, amen, I [00:41:00] say to you." But I just want to explore the different ways that we use amen. And kids, on your handout, there's some questions. There's a question about what amen means. There's a question about doxology and benediction, and this will be helpful to Mom and Dad.
The primary meaning of amen is simply, "I agree." It is a statement of agreement. The secondary meaning, which comes from the first, is, "May it happen. May it happen as you've said, Lord." A doxology is praise to God. When we sing the doxology or when we speak or read a doxology that's praising God, and a benediction is blessing to God's people, and we do it all in our service.
But if you look at the chart, uh... And again, you may rearrange this chart differently. I, I made this chart somewhat in haste, but if I had more time and I could work through it, I might rearrange it. But I think it's important because it shows us the different ways that Scripture uses this word, and [00:42:00] it, it uses it to mean, "I agree."
And a very good example would be Revelation chapter 22. Revelation 22:20, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly.'" John's response, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." I agree, and I want you to come. It also has the sense of, "May it happen," and we see verses there. But we also use amen to praise God.
We use it at the end of prayers, and, and you see it there. We use it at the end of a doxology. Oftentimes in the Bible, it comes at the end of a benediction. Not always, but often. Probably more often than not. But I find it fascinating in Psalm 41, 72, 89, and 106, and you may not remember this, but the Psalm, the Book of Psalms is actually broke up into five different books, and at the end of every book there's a doxology and then the amen.
Except for the last book, it's just a doxology without the amen. [00:43:00] But there's a doxology and there's an amen, and that's one of the reasons why we say amen when we sing. We say amen when we sing for various reasons. I think we have an example from the Book of Psalms. But also, if you understand why we sing, and I've covered this in the past, but if you understand why we sing, we don't sing the words for ourselves.
We sing the words for the person sitting next to us. Because in Colossians chapter three and Ephesians chapter five, that is how Paul instructs us. We are to speak to one another, sing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It's for the person sitting next to me. And we work hard at, at picking a good hymnal.
We work hard at singing the right songs so that we're singing sound theology. So when we're done singing sound theology to our neighbor, my neighbor can acknowledge it with a hearty amen, and that's what we need to work on a little more. We say amen at the end of our prayers. Amen is used once in scripture to describe God.
He is the truth. [00:44:00] Amens are used in doxologies and benedictions, and I, I wish I had more time. Um, it's not universal. Usually, when you read of a doxology, most often you'll hear an amen. You don't always hear it with a benediction, but it's there. And we're not looking for the least common denominator, so the elders, we've made a decision because we want to reflect scripture as best we can.
Now, I don't remember doing it this way in my tradition, so I don't think it is absolutely 100% commanded, but we're gonna start doing it this way, and that is I am going to start giving the benediction, and then we're gonna sing the doxology. I will give you the benediction, which is God's blessing upon you, and then we will sing praises to God, and we will end it with a resounding, in song, "Amen."
Let it be. Let it come to pass Time is horrible. Number four on your outline. So much [00:45:00] more to say, but just, uh, concluding thoughts and postscript In verse 22: But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation. For I've written to you briefly. And, you know, most people will chuckle that I've written to you briefly.
If you compare the book of Hebrews to the other New Testament books, it comes in at number nine. There are nine-- or 4,950 words thereabout in the Greek text. But he calls it a brief exhortation, and he says to bear with it, and literally what that means, to endure, to lift it up, to heed it, to follow it, to obey it.
So when you go back and you re-read this book, when you, you think through the sermons and everything that's been said about this book, are you willing to bow the knee? Are you willing to obey it? Are you willing to, most importantly, because so much of Hebrews is about this, are you going to believe the right things?
And I will rehearse those in a minute, but will you believe the [00:46:00] things that the writer has taught us? Into verse 23: Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes, I will see you. Again, I wish I had more, more time to delve into this, but I want to get to the last verse.
Greet, verse 24. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. And just one comment about that last phrase, "Those from Italy greet you," does not mean the author was writing from Italy. It just simply means that wherever he's writing from, there were a group of Christians who are from Italy, and that group of Christians is sending their greetings.
A lot of people have taken this verse and they've tried to determine who the author is based on location of writing, but it really doesn't tell us that. But I want to end with, with this: Grace be with you all. And hopefully you'll remember from last week that grace is that which benefits. Grace be with you all.
And [00:47:00] in most of your translations, you probably don't see the word amen there, but I would argue that it's part of the original text, that the amen should be included. Some of your translations will have it in brackets. But grace be with you all, and then the author responds to his own words. And I think there's two reasons that the author responds to his own words, and I think it's important.
Number one, he's a prophet, maybe an apostle. He is speaking the Word of God, and so he is agreeing with the Word of God, knowing that he is writing the words of God. So he has every right to respond to his own words. But I also think he's instructing the congregation. And again, more often than not, when you hear a benediction, we should probably respond with some kind of an agreement.
So the author says amen. The book of Hebrews teaches us a lot about how the prophets and the apostles in the New Testament church understood the Old. It teaches us a lot about the finished work of Christ. And here's what's important, and here's what you might want to write [00:48:00] down, and here's what I pray you will remember.
What did Christ actually accomplish on the cross? The bulk of the book is addressing that question. Christ accomplished something that no other high priest could accomplish. Christ accomplished the eradic- the eradication of sin. For those whom Christ died, sin is gone. Once we come to faith, sin is removed.
I don't know if you remember this, but prior to doing the book of Hebrews, we, uh, did a series on the five solas. And I saved solus Christus for the very end. And I did one sermon on it, and then I told you I want to go through the book of Hebrews because that's what this book is all about. Christ alone.
Christ accomplished it alone. And we learn through the book of Hebrews that Christ is divine, that he exceeds in value, worth, importance, whatever words you want to use. He far exceeds in value, worth, and importance all [00:49:00] others. Good angels, fallen angels, Old Testament saints, high priests, sacrifices, tabernacles, temples.
Christ exceeds them all. He is loving. He is our help. He will never leave you nor forsake you, but he is also judge. And the author is clear. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And so we are warned throughout this book. The promise is I will never leave you or forsake you.
The warning is do not leave nor forsake Jesus. Do not add something to Jesus. His work is complete. He has satisfied the wrath and the justice due every covenant lawbreaker for whom he died. The triune God is propitiated. God's wrath is satisfied. Our sin is atoned for. It is covered and removed. We have assurance of salvation by faith in the completed work of Christ.
And we have been sanctified, and we are being sanctified[00:50:00]
The book of Hebrews, good to the last syllable. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this book. Thank you. Quite frankly, we could start next Sunday and go through it again and learn more, learn new things, learn about things we couldn't explore. Father, this is an amazing, wonderful book, and you have given it to your church.
May we spend a lifetime studying it. But more importantly, Spirit of God, will you convict us to believe in what it says, to take it at its own word? If that means we have to give up past beliefs, then give us the ability to give up past beliefs. But may we see Jesus. May we use this book. May we see Jesus for who he is, and may we love him for who he is, and because we love him, help us love one another.[00:51:00]
Father, the word thank you does not seem adequate. I just don't know what else to say Thank you for this book. And all of God's people said, amen.
