Hebrews, Part 1 of 6

[00:00:00] Shall we begin with a word of prayer? We thank thee, our dear Father in heaven, for all thy love and mercy and grace to us in Christ. We thank thee for the forgiveness of our sins. We thank thee for the assurance of thy holy word that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Be pleased to bless us as we study together again this evening. Lead us, we pray thee, into the truth and grant that we might be willing hearers and doers of thy holy word. [00:00:34] We pray through Christ with thanksgiving. Amen. Now you're free to raise your hand and ask any questions as we go along. And I'll try to, at the end of each session, to ask if there is any discussion or any questions or any further thoughts. First of all, we have about ten introductory questions. First is the date of this epistle. [00:01:05] We're studying Hebrews, and the date of Hebrews is thought to be in the late 60s A.D. At the very latest, it could have been early in A.D. 70, but the temple was destroyed totally in the year 70 A.D. and there are 18 references in this book to the fact of the sacrificial system still going on in the temple and it's thought by many scholars that the author would certainly not have written like that if the temple had been destroyed. [00:01:48] He would have said, now we used to have this sacrificial system, or we used to have priests, or whatever, but everything is completely normal. Eighteen times in the book, they're listed in Philip Hughes' commentary on this book, eighteen times there are references made to the temple services still going on. The second question is, what was the occasion for this letter, for this treatise? [00:02:22] It starts out as a treatise and winds up as a letter. Greetings are given from different people to different people. And, for example, the churches in Italy, or the Christians from Italy salute you. That is ambiguous in itself. Do it mean the Christians from Italy who were living somewhere else or the Christians from Italy who were living in Italy? It isn't clear and the commentators don't know. [00:02:53] But the occasion is that some Jewish Christians were attracted afresh to Judaism. And the question is, shall the Christian church allow its members without any protest to go back to Judaism? Or is this book supposed to cure any tendencies along that line? These Jewish Christians were Greek-speaking. [00:03:25] The reason we think that is because there are so many quotations from the Greek Old Testament. In this letter, and if he had been writing to Hebrew Christians, he would have seen to it always that he used the Hebrew Scriptures. Are you understanding what I'm talking about? He does not quote from the Hebrew Old Testament. He quotes from the Greek Old Testament, even when the Greek Old Testament deviates from the Hebrew. This may seem a little bit surprising to many of us, but nevertheless, that's what he does. [00:04:00] and it's not our business to correct the New Testament writers but to try to understand why they did what they did. So we'll see examples of this, how the writer, I haven't given his name yet because we don't know it, how the writer quotes the Greek Old Testament which is nicknamed the Septuagint. Several centuries before the time of Christ, somebody wrote a letter And it's considered almost pure baloney today, this account. [00:04:40] But it kept growing by tradition until the theory was that 72 Jewish scholars, six from each tribe, went into 72 different rooms and after 72 days they all come out with the same translation. if you believe that you're remarkable it just isn't true nevertheless there's a grain of truth in the story the greek old testament was probably made by a number of people because it's so uneven [00:05:16] in its translation if the same man like martin luther had translated the greek old testament Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist [00:05:54] The purpose of this letter or treatise is to show the superiority of Christ and Christianity to any form of Judaism. The superiority of Christ and Christianity to Judaism. [00:06:27] Now we come to the most complicated question of all. Who was the author of this book? We can't do any better than what Origen did. He wrote about 240 A.D. And Origen says, only God knows. Who wrote this letter? The King James Version attributes it to Paul, [00:06:58] but that's not at all an ancient manuscript that is used there. This is so complicated that it's hard to explain. The modern versions are made from the older manuscripts. Am I clear? So that it doesn't matter too much whether you're using the American Standard or the Revised Standard or the NIV or any other modern version, they go back to the ancient manuscripts, the two longest manuscripts, one is altogether complete, are the one that's called B, Vaticanus in Rome, [00:07:47] that's not quite complete and the other is Sinaiticus which was found at Mount Sinai and they were both written originally about 340 then besides that since 1900 scholars have found in the sands of Egypt what are called papyri do you know the word it comes from a reed which grows in the river the papyrus reed and in the in the days of the first century they would take a Are you understanding me? [00:08:35] Papyrus paper was made from the papyrus reed by pounding And somebody wrote a book The Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts in 1898. Sir Frederick Kenyon, he was director of the British Museum, and he said, It's entirely possible that the day will come when we will find papyri. Lo and behold, that happened. And he lived to see it so that he incorporated the results of these findings in his later editions of our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts. [00:09:11] Well, as I said, Origen said, only God knows who wrote this book, because the most ancient manuscripts do not attribute it to anybody. It's just called to the Hebrews. Now, here are the six main suggestions for the authorship of this book. Quite a large number of ancient and modern scholars attribute it to Barnabas. Everybody agrees it came from the Paul circle. [00:09:46] Paul or one of his friends wrote the book. I'll tell you a little later why it's thought that Paul himself did not write the book. But Tertullian, who wrote about 200 A.D., attributed this to Barnabas. Ulmann, U-L-L-M-A-N-N, Wieseler, a German scholar, W-I-E-S-E-L-E-R, Weiss, who was a very famous scholar, Renan, a French scholar, Zahn, we have to have a little humor as we go along, there were two scholars by the name of Zahn, and the one was noted for his unusual wisdom, that's the one I'm talking about here, [00:10:28] So he was nicknamed in Germany der Weisheitszahn, the wisdom tooth. And the other tzahn was so bitter and critical. He was against everybody. And so his nickname was der Giftzahn, the poison fang. It's used of a snake, like a rattlesnake, as a giftzahn, poison fang. Solomon, S-A-L-M-O-N, and Godet, G-O-D-E-T. [00:11:04] Those are some of the people that favored Barnabas. Secondly, a few scholars favored Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. We know that this was the case from the writings of Jerome. Jerome lived from about 345, we don't know the exact date, some books say 347. until 420 he was a great scholar and translated the greek bible into latin and this latin vulgate [00:11:40] is the official bible of the roman catholic church eight thousand manuscripts of the latin vulgate have been found only five thousand greek new testament uh or parts of it but eight 18,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts from Jerome. Well, Jerome tells us that some of the ancient scholars attributed this book to Luke. John Calvin, the great reformer of Geneva, Switzerland, who died 1564, held that he thought Luke wrote it. [00:12:15] Dellinger, D.O. Umlaut, two dots, L-L-I-N-G-E-R, a German scholar. and Franz Delitzsch, who was the author of a commentary, D-E-L-I-T-S-C-H. Those three known scholars by name favored Luke. According to Origen, who died at 254 as a result of imprisonment, he said that some scholars thought that Clement of Rome wrote the book. [00:12:49] But as far as I know, no modern scholars hold to that. Fourthly, Adolf von Harnack, I'm giving American pronunciations in German, Harnack. Harnack was a very famous German scholar. He died in 1930 at a great age. Harnack thought that Priscilla, a woman, wrote this book. However, in 1132, the writer refers to himself and then uses a masculine participle in apposition with me. [00:13:28] Are you understanding the grammar of the thing? So Harnack said, well, that's not significant. But most scholars think it is significant, that no writer would have done that. If Priscilla had written this, she would have used a feminine participle in apposition with me. Five, some scholars think an unknown Alexandrian wrote this letter. They don't attribute any particular name to this person, but an unknown person from Alexandria. [00:14:05] Now, I think most modern scholars, if they had to choose, would say, we still think that Martin Luther hit the nail on the head. Luther said, this remarkable book was written, and he uses the German word Freilich, and that gives about the effect, as if you'd say in English, to be sure. This book was written, to be sure, by Apollos. [00:14:38] So Luther held that. It's translated certainly in the most modern commentary I have on Hebrews. But it's the German Freilich. Luther held that. Tholuck, in German, Tholuck, T-H-O-L-U-C-K Munson, Dr. Kurtz, and various other people. Those are the main views, and if I had to choose among them, I think I would vote for [00:15:13] Apollos also, but it's only a theory. Nobody can establish the authorship of this book of Hebrews. many books have favorite words and here are five favorite words or expressions that we have in this book one is how much more that phrase occurs again and again how much more this occurs over and over about it thirteen times I believe [00:15:53] 2. Mention is made about 13 times to a better covenant, a better covenant. 3. The word priest is used again and again of our Lord and his people. 4. The word faith is used a great deal, especially in chapter 11. By faith, by faith, by faith, you have it over and over. [00:16:25] And five is the Greek word for eternal. Eternal is used. How much more? Better covenant, priest, faith, eternal. That's point five if I've counted right. Six is the language of this particular book. This is the best Greek in the New Testament. Whoever wrote Hebrews wrote the best Greek in the whole New Testament. It's better than Luke, better than Paul, better than Peter, better than John. [00:17:07] It's excellent in vocabulary and in Greek style. B.F. Westcott, who wrote what I think is one of the best commentaries, says, It's purer and more vigorous than any other book in the New Testament. Purer Greek and more vigorous. Now, what are the main points in the book? what are the main facets of this great epistle or treatise number one is the [00:17:45] superiority of Christ we want to look at that tonight after we get through these introductory questions the superiority of Christ Christ is superior to the prophets he is superior to the angels he's superior even to Moses the great The word law does not convey the same impression in English as the Hebrew word Torah does. [00:18:20] B.B. Warfield was a great theologian, and he said the best English equivalent of Torah is gracious instruction. Gracious instruction, because the five first books of the Bible are really gracious instruction. They tell us what God's will is for us, how we can live happy and blessed lives. It's not law in the English sense that we sing about free from the law. [00:18:53] The second theme in the book is rest, R-E-S-T, and here he talks about the children of Israel finding rest in Canaan. He talks about us Christians finding rest in Jesus so that we're not troubled and disturbed. And finally, we look forward to our eternal rest in the glory In contrast with the struggles that we have in this life. So rest is theme number two. The third theme is the high priesthood of our Lord. The high priesthood of Christ. [00:19:41] the fourth is the glory of the new covenant the glory of the new covenant the King James talks about New Testament all the time but covenant is a little better translation of the official name of the books of the New New Covenant the I think a fifth we want to look at the meaning of faith. What is saving faith? And Hebrews 11 ought to make that plain to us. Well, it's 9, 10, [00:20:21] and 11 as a matter of fact. And 6 is something we all need, a confident Christian life. It's the opposite of living in defeat, the opposite of living in fear, and so on. Have you ever Have you ever seen this poem about why birds are so happy and Christians are so miserable, and the birds figured it out that it must be that they don't have a kind Heavenly Father like they do? [00:20:52] This is the idea that we have of this confident Christian life. Now the last thing in the introduction is, what are the best commentaries that we can watch for in secondhand bookstores and even down to the present? Ninety-five years ago, a British scholar named B.F. Westcott, he's famous for collaborating with Anthony Hort, H-O-R-T, Westcott, W-E-S-T-C-O-T-T, Westcott and Hort worked a whole lifetime on the Greek New Testament. [00:21:34] And they gave us by far a better Greek Testament than had existed before. This time. Now B.F. Westcott, in 1889, wrote a very large, heavy, scholarly commentary on Hebrews. And if you ever get a chance to buy one, I would think in a second-hand store you could do that for $2. It's worth $50 if you don't have it. [00:22:05] It's called the Epistle to the Hebrews, published in London, 1889. by B.F. Westcott. The most modern commentary is by a man that I know, Philip E. Hughes, H-U-G-H-E-S. Philip E. Edgecombe, I believe is his name, Hughes, H-U-G-H-E-S. A commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. It was published up here at Grand Rapids [00:22:36] by a publisher called Erdmann's in 1977. Do you have any questions on the introductory material that we've looked at so far? All right, let's look at our first of these six great topics in the book, which is the superiority of Christ. [00:23:16] The commentators tell us that this book of Hebrews is the most developed, theologically developed, treatise in the New Testament. And I think that's true. Most other books have a much more limited appeal. The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, tell about the external life of our Lord, his miracles, his teachings, his healings, and so on, and his death. John concentrates on the discourses that Jesus gave. [00:23:53] and the book of Acts is a rather narrative account of how the early church grew. Then the several letters of Paul and Peter and John and so on deal with particular questions. But Hebrews is really a thorough treatise on Jesus Christ and the first topic is the superiority of Christ. Now, the book starts out, I won't read the Greek, I have the King James here, the New English Bible, and an interlinear translation by Dr. Marshall. [00:24:34] The Greek literally means, in many parts and in many ways, God spoke to the fathers by the prophets, in many parts and in many ways. The New English Bible has a very clever paraphrase. It says, in fragmentary and varied fashion. That's exactly the meaning. In fragmentary and varied fashion. [00:25:06] You see, if the revelation came in many parts, in contrast to a well-developed unity, then it is fragmentary in character and that's true of the old testament the old testament is not a complete revelation of God for that we turn to Jesus Christ I noticed in the herald that came today somebody said Robert Crider I think it was said that the Schleitheim confession of 1527 [00:25:38] says Christ said, Christ taught, Christ said, Christ taught just again and again and again the fullness of revelation came for the first time in Christ. There was a German scholar named Werner Bust, B-U-L-S-T who wrote a book called Uffenbarung, Revelation and it's translated in English by that title, Revelation and Werner Bust says The revelation of God in the Old Testament was fragmentary and incomplete. [00:26:12] The revelation of Christ is full and he uses the word definitive. Do you know that word? It means here we have absolute truth about Jesus Christ, about God through Jesus Christ. In fragmentary and varied fashion, God spoke in olden times of old to the fathers by the prophets. Now, when you read the Old Testament, you find that Moses is rated as a prophet. [00:26:45] Are you aware of that? It says again and again, some 70 times, that the word of the Lord came to Moses saying, that made him a prophet and about ten more times the word of the Lord came to Moses and Aaron his brother so when God spoke to the fathers by the prophets this would include Moses and secondly did you know that in Hebrew [00:27:16] in the Hebrew canon the Hebrew list of inspired books you have the four former prophets and the four latter prophets The four former prophets are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. They're the prophets, the former prophets, because they contain many oracles spoken by servants of the Lord. And then the latter prophets consisted of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve, meaning the twelve minor prophets. [00:27:50] That's sixteen writing prophets. So to the former prophets, first of all, we have Moses who wrote the first five books. Personally, I think that was one book to begin with, but it was just too long. If you have a manuscript wound in from one end on two different sticks, you'd get arthritis when you tried to go from Genesis 10 to Deuteronomy 30. Can you follow me? and so they chopped it up into five manuscripts on five on ten different [00:28:23] stakes so that they could manage this thing a little bit a little better so Moses was a prophet Joshua judges Samuel and Kings are called prophets and the sixteen writing people are prophets so God in times of old spoke to the fathers by the prophets I had to think of first Kings 22 chapter 22 there was a prophet named Micaiah and the king of Israel and the king of Judah were having a confab together [00:28:59] they were visiting and the king of Israel said to the king of Judah I'm thinking of going to war with the Syrians would you like to go along with me well the king of Judah said I'd be awfully I'm so glad to hear what a prophet of the Lord would have to say about this. Well, the king of Israel said there is one left, but he said I have 400 other prophets here. We'll call them in, so they called him in. And the 400 prophets all said, go to war, the Lord will give you the victory. [00:29:33] Do you remember this? And finally the king of Judah got up his courage and he said, I would like to hear what a prophet of the Lord would have to say. Well, the king of Israel said, there's one guy, his name is Micaiah, but he always prophesies against me. So, the king of Judah said, let not my Lord say so. So they sent for Micaiah, and the person that went for him came back and said, now, all the other prophets are prophesying favorably, I hope you'll do the same. [00:30:08] and Micaiah said I'm not made like that whatever the Lord tells me I'll say but then when he got there he imitated the false prophets he said go ahead go to war the Lord will give you the victory the king of Israel said how many times do I have to tell you to tell me the truth all right he said so he gave him both barrels he said I saw all Israel scattered As sheep without a shepherd, that means the kings are going to be killed. [00:30:43] The king will be killed, the king of Israel. And he said, the cry went up, every man to his own tent. And the king of Israel turned to the king of Judah, he said, didn't I tell you? That's what he'd prophesied. And he said, put that man in jail till I come back. and Micaiah said if you come back the Lord has not spoken by me and he went out to his death on the battlefield. You remember this? That's tremendous. That's just one example of how the [00:31:18] Lord spoke by the prophets in a fragmentary fashion in the Old Testament but he goes on here In contrast with the message that came by the prophets, now the message comes by his son, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the New Testament, the days of the Messiah are thought of as the last days. [00:31:52] So the last days began with the day of Pentecost and go till the second coming of our Lord. We use the word last days now to oftentimes mean the last portion of this age. But that's not the New Testament usage. The New Testament thinks of this whole church age, as we call it, as being the last days, the days of the Messiah. so in these last days God has spoken to us by his son now you can say hold on there does the [00:32:28] Greeks say his son or does it say a son well I don't need to tell you that different languages have different ways of expressing themselves in German you do not use the word a pronoun The Bible says, for my children, we would in English, but the German would say, for the children. [00:33:08] Are you understanding? And that's exactly the usage of the Greek New Testament. God has in these last days spoken unto us by Son, who is us, meaning in contrast with the prophets, but in English, the English idiom requires His Son. I don't know whether I'm making myself clear. Now, that's the first thing he says about Christ, that He's the Son of God. [00:33:39] The second thing is also in 1.2, that the Son is God's heir of all things. Just like if a father has only one child, the whole estate then goes to that one child. Now that God in heaven has only one Son, and so he is the heir of all things. Thirdly, the sun was God's agent in the creation. [00:34:12] That is also at the end of verse 2. Through whom he made literally the worlds. The NIV says the universe, which is the way we would say it today. But the Greek says the worlds. In verse 3, it says the sun is God's radiance. In other words, the sun shines with the glory of God. Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian, 1813 to 1855, had another theme along this line. [00:34:55] Kierkegaard said that Jesus was God incognito. Do you know that word? God, not evident that he was God it's a little like the child that saw a king for the first time and the child said, well he's just a man well the Son of God seemed to be just a man when he was here on the other hand, do you remember one time when Peter and the other apostles had fished all night and they saw a man on the shore [00:35:26] and the man said, boys did you catch anything? and Peter said no we've toiled all night and haven't caught anything he said cast your net on the other side and they did so and they got so many fish that the boat began to sink do you remember this and what did Peter say depart from me for I am a sinful man oh lord now the radiance The radiance of God shone through at that time. One time Jesus was coming to a town called Nain and there was a widow coming out burying her son and they were carrying the dead body. [00:36:06] And Jesus said, just stop a minute. And he raised the young man from the dead and gave him back to his mother. The radiance of God shone through. All the miracles that our Lord performed showed the hand of God. This radiance is not like the artists of the Middle Ages that put a halo over people's heads to represent Christ or the apostles. It's not that kind of radiance. It's radiance that showed the deity of our Lord. [00:36:42] Verse 3, it says the Son is the exact representation of God's being. or he bears the very stamp of God's being just like you stamp a coin out in a modern nation. So God put his stamp upon Jesus. And the sixth thing, if you're counting, first is God spoke by his Son. Second, the Son is the heir of God. [00:37:14] Third, the Son was God's agent in creation. The fourth is the sun is God's radiance. Five, the sun is the exact representation of God's being. Six, the sun sustains all things by his powerful word. Some of you have heard me tell this before, but I was so impressed, and I still am. They had a group of scientists at Eastern Mennonite College [00:37:45] The spring of 1972, they had a one-week break between the winter semester, trimester, and the spring trimester. And they had a conference at that time, partly of scientists and partly of theologians. And if there was anybody who was more pessimistic than the others, it was the scientists. They thought we're just about at the end. This world is going to go up in an atomic fire. and they were scared stiff. [00:38:19] And then Archie Penner, do you know him? He comes from Western Canada. He was teaching at that time, I don't know where he is now, at Malone College. And Archie Penner saved the day. These scientists were talking about this Earth as a spaceship sailing through space and people on it about to blow it up. And Archie Penner said simply one day, He said, there's a rumor going around on this spaceship that the man who designed it and is in control is on board. [00:38:58] Jesus Christ. And one of the scientists said, my whole point of view has changed. He saw that somebody was in control. And I think we all need that. We all need the assurance that Jesus Christ is in control, not Chernenko or Reagan or some other people that you could mention. We always have wicked dictators in the history of the world, but Jesus Christ is in control. [00:39:34] This is not my doctrine, it's the doctrine of the word. It says four times in the book of Daniel, chapter 4, that God sets up the lowliest of men and gives it to whomsoever he will. So God is in control through Jesus Christ. The Son sustains all things by his powerful word. And then, 7, the Son died to cleanse us from the guilt of sin. [00:40:05] The Son died, that means on the cross of Golgotha, and he died to cleanse us from sin. The question is not what you and I have done. The question is, has the guilt of sin been taken away? And Christ does that. This is very real. I think it's an insult to Christ not to believe it. Do you remember my old story about John Momoa? [00:40:39] He was trying to help a young convert to Christian Assurance. And the man just couldn't believe that he was forgiven. And finally, Brother Momoa tried something desperate. He accidentally stepped on the guy's toe. Oh, pardon me, he said. The man said, of course, that's all right. And then after a bit, Brother Mumaw said, Would you please forgive me for stepping on your toe? Why, of course, the man said. And after a bit, Brother Mumaw got down on his knees and put his hands together and said, [00:41:16] Would you please forgive me for stepping on your toe? And the man said, Brother Mumaw. Oh, he said, I see. In other words, that's what he was doing with God. God, he was asking God, would you please forgive me? And God says, sure, I forgive you for Christ's sake. And the guy says, I can't believe he's forgiven me. And God says, please believe it. The son died to cleanse us. We are a cleansed people. It is not in order for us Christians to worry about our sins. [00:41:55] that's the devil that tries to get us to do that but Christ wants us to believe that he has cleansed us and we are clean the last point, number 8 the son, this is also in verse 3 the son is now seated with his father on his throne in the heavens the son is now seated with the father on his throne this is a fulfillment of the most quoted most alluded to passage in the Old Testament Psalm 110 1 the Lord God himself said to my Lord Christ sit on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool [00:42:51] Do you remember that? Psalm 110.1. That is the most quoted and alluded to passage in the New Testament. If we wanted to get a little closer to the meaning of the original, I think we would say, The Son is now co-seated with the Father on his throne. The Son is co-seated in the heavenly realms with the Father. Well, that's Christ is superior to the prophets. [00:43:27] Now we go to 1.4, the second thing. There are three things tonight. And we come to the second one now. Christ is superior to God's angels. Number one, his name is superior to the angels. The word angel means messenger. So God would send a servant named Gabriel or whatever to convey a certain message to a given human being. [00:44:01] But our Lord's name is Son of God. And the word Son of God is far superior to a messenger or angel. 1.4 One-five, he says, the Father pronounced him Son, capital S-O-N. And then the writer, now here he goes to the Greek Old Testament, not the Hebrew. [00:44:34] The Greek Old Testament in Deuteronomy 32-43 does not have the same text at all as the Hebrew does. Our Hebrew Bible reads, Rejoice, O nations, with his people. The Greek Old Testament says, Let all God's angels worship him. It's quite different. And the writer is using the Greek Old Testament, so he quotes it. [00:45:06] Let all God's angels worship him. And the Dead Sea Scrolls, by the way, confirm this. The Dead Sea Scrolls read exactly like the Septuagint does in the Greek Old Testament. So scripture, the writer says, calls on angels to worship the sun. Let all God's angels worship him. Deuteronomy 32, 43 in the Septuagint. In 1.7, the writer says that the angels serve God. [00:45:39] These messengers are sent by God to serve him. 1.8. The sun reigns, R-E-I-G-N-S, the sun reigns in the divine kingdom. Do you know Colossians 1.13? The writer says in Colossians 1.13 that God has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. [00:46:12] That is beautiful. We're translated by God from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's 1.8. In Hebrews 1.9, it says that it was God who made Jesus The, and the Hebrew word is Mashiach, which is translated the Messiah, or in Greek, the Christ, or in English, the Anointed One. [00:46:45] It's the same, all three things mean the same thing. The Hebrew means, Messiah means the Anointed One, and the exact equivalent in Greek is Christos, from Creo to Anoint, the Anointed One. So Christ, or the Messiah, or the Anointed One, was appointed so by God, the Father. In 1.10, it says Christ was the Creator. That's the seventh point, in case you've lost track. [00:47:20] In 1.11 and 1.12, Christ is eternal. and 113, we have the ninth point, that Christ is the sovereign ruler. I'd like to call attention to three scriptures here. 1 Peter 3.22, it says that our Lord has gone into heaven at God's right hand. Angels and authorities and powers are now in submission to him. [00:47:51] It indicates something of the almighty power of our Lord. And Ephesians 1.20-22 is even more startling. It says that Christ is seated with the Father in the heavenly realms. Again, in English we could say he's co-seated with the Father. Far above all, and then we have at least three terms used of earthly rulers. and titles. It says he has the highest name not only in this world but also in that which is to come. [00:48:30] So Jesus Christ is really sovereign. And 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the sovereignty of Christ. It says he must reign until all enemies are subdued, until they're all put under his feet. And then Christ will turn over this victorious kingdom to the Father. 1 Corinthians 15, 28 Now chapter 2 starts out with a strong appeal [00:49:08] in view of the sovereignty of Christ and the Saviorhood of our Lord not to neglect so great salvation. this is one of the things that people are capable of doing they're capable of neglecting the most important thing they face i understand that steam locomotives years ago we don't have them anymore hardly but steam locomotives had a low water whistle you understand me if the if the water [00:49:43] was getting low in the boiler a whistle began to blow and the engineer was supposed to get water all these things that I have been told, I'm going to go into that boiler in a hurry. This is a true story. It was in the Goshen News. This shows how old I am. But I would suppose about 40 years ago, a train, a passenger train, left South Bend with a low water whistle blowing. and the train went through Mishawaka and the low water whistle was blowing there [00:50:13] this was an awful neglect on the part of the engineer and he stopped when he got to Elkhart and he stopped some distance west of the station fortunately and at that point the locomotive blew Well, now did that engineer not know what a low water whistle was? Well, of course he did. He simply figured, well, I won't pay too much attention to it. You have to. [00:50:45] And I could, you could all think of a thousand illustrations of this thing, the way people will, I knew a man in Pennsylvania. He was drinking water all the time. He'd sit in the evenings holding a glass with ice water in it and he'd take a sip from time to time. He finally had to go to the hospital for some other reason. Then they said, well, you've got diabetes. Well, he should have known that, but he didn't believe it. Well, I suppose he believed it, but he wouldn't look at it. [00:51:19] This is the way the world knows that Jesus Christ is Savior and still they don't do anything about it. I was at O'Hare Airport one time sitting in the waiting room and a young man came and sat down beside me and he had on a uniform that I didn't recognize I didn't know what it was turned out to be he belonged to the Merchant Marine and he had been gone a year and a half and he told me well he had written on his fingers born to lose [00:51:55] and I thought maybe this is no accident that he's sitting here maybe the Lord has arranged this that I can help this young man spiritually so I prayed in my heart that God would give me the wisdom and leading and so on before I was hardly through with the prayer the young man spoke up he said everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to be a disciple and I thought that was an awful good beginning and then then he confessed [00:52:25] that he should be going home with fifteen hundred dollars and he gambled away over a thousand of it so he was going home with only a few hundred to his wife and children for a year and a half that he was gone did he not know better of course he knew better and he didn't expect to wind up like he did and And that's exactly the way it is with people who neglect salvation. Maybe a little humor would help here. [00:52:57] I was at Fisher, Illinois one time, and Howard Zare was pastor, and for some reason, I don't remember why, he took me to a certain home where I ate dinner, but he didn't stay. and the man's name was Emmanuel but his wife called him Mauney and I was giving goodbye Howard had to come for me around two o'clock and I was standing in the front porch facing the family that had been my hosts and all at once the board under my right foot snapped and I dropped down like a pelican with one leg high [00:53:41] The other leg down through the hole on the ground below, and this woman was mortified. She said, Monty, I told you to fix that board. Next time I got to Fisher, this brother came to me, he smiled a little bit, he said, I guess it's no use to invite you to come to my home. And I said, listen, you forget all about that. I think we're all pretty clear on this, aren't we? [00:54:15] We used to have a very godly church leader named D.D. Miller, south of Middlebury. And I heard him tell, when he was an old white-haired man, how he went to see a dying sinner one time. And this man was wringing his hands, and he said, The Old Testament, 2.2, was given by angels. [00:54:58] Now, this is the nearest thing that I know of to something that is not stated, often at least, In the Old Testament, and is referred to here in this treatise, in Deuteronomy 33.2, it says the Lord came from Sinai with myriads of holy ones. Myriads means tens of thousands of holy ones. That's the nearest thing we have in the Old Testament to the Old Testament being given by angels, the Old Covenant. [00:55:33] and Psalm 68 17 says that God has thousands and thousands of chariots and then the writer actually says in 2 2 that in the old testament there were severe penalties let me just use three as illustrations in Joshua 7 we have the awful story of Achan how he found certain things that he He was considered very valuable, and he stole them for himself and hid them in the ground under his tent, and it cost him his life. You know the story. [00:56:11] In 2 Chronicles 26, we have the sad story of King Uzziah, who got lifted up in pride, and he thought he ought to offer incense to the Lord, and the high priest withstood him, said you have no right to do that, and Uzziah told him to jump in the day in the urban effect, and he went right on ahead with his worship of the Lord. the Lord through the burning of incense and his hand became white as through leprosy [00:56:48] in second Samuel 6 we have the sad story of Uzzah who put out his hand and touched the ark when they were not allowed to do that and cost him his life now you'd expect the apostle whoever he was that wrote this book to say Well, the worst sin is that of Achan, or Uzziah, or Uzzah, or whoever. No, the worst sin is to neglect salvation. [00:57:21] That's the whole point of this context. The worst sin is to neglect salvation. I knew personally a very unusual minister in the Weaverland district of Lancaster County. His name was Israel B. Good. He was a high school principal, unconverted. And at 39, he suddenly turned to the Lord and was baptized in the same class with my father, who was 15. [00:57:53] And this Israel B. Goode lived 1861 to 1945. And my father heard him preach much oftener than I did. And my father said that he said one time, God often called me and finally he called loudly I don't know what that was but he did a man that probably influenced Christendom as much as any living man today was C.S. Lewis do you know who that was? [00:58:29] He taught at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. He was a tremendous scholar and a brilliant writer. And he put this in figurative language. He talked about the hound of heaven who was baying at a great distance, and he heard him over the years, getting a little bit closer, a little closer, a little closer. and finally C.S. Lewis said I got down on my knees [00:59:00] and gave up to Jesus Christ and I came to him as the worst sinner in all England now I don't suppose C.S. Lewis had broken a lot of commandments in the ordinary sense of the word but he had neglected the salvation of his own soul and that's what this writer is talking about well he says in 2.3 that the new revelation was proclaimed by Christ. And now we come to a statement that most scholars think the Apostle Paul could not have written. [00:59:36] It says it was reliably, this gospel was reliably transmitted to us by those who were eyewitnesses of the events. Now that's just the opposite of what Paul always said. Paul always said, I didn't get my gospel from men, I got my gospel directly from the Lord. And now this writer says, we got it from the eyewitnesses who had seen the Lord. 2.4, the writer says, this message was divinely confirmed by four things. [01:00:15] We'd call them, by one word in English, signs. Miracles. But the Greek word here is signs, which is the significance of what you're looking at. Wonders, which is the human response to what is taking place. Powers, you see the hand of God in the miracles that he performed. And finally, gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now I looked up what some of the gifts are. [01:00:48] In 1 Corinthians 12, toward the end of the chapter, especially verse 28, he lists seven gifts. Apostles, prophets, teachers, gifts of healing, gifts of being helpers, administrators, and tongues. and then after listing all those things he suddenly says now i'm going to show you even a better way yet a more excellent way do you know what it is the way of love first corinthians 13 [01:01:24] the whole chapter is a brilliant beautiful commentary on love romans 12 6 to 8 also lists 7 gifts of the Spirit, and they're not the same 7 which you have in 1 Corinthians. Prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing, gifts of leadership, and gifts of showing mercy. Now, beginning at 2.5, and running for several verses, he talks about our marvelous Savior. [01:02:01] The Old Testament tells of the high order which God intended for man, I'm using man in the sense of mankind, the German word is mensch, it's not man in the sense of male, as if females did not manifest the glory of God. Are you understanding me? Man means mankind. God intended for mankind. It says that God made him a little lower than the angels. [01:02:35] Westcott says, this is this old commentary, this is the Christian order, that mankind should be a little lower than the angels. But he says in 2.8b, He doesn't make it that plain, but the fall frustrated God's plan. He said, we do not see all things as yet put under him. Now, I said a little while ago, there are three things. [01:03:06] First, Christ is superior to the prophets. Second, he's superior to the angels. and thirdly now 3 1 to 6 he's superior to Israel's lawgiver Moses Christ is superior to Moses he says in 3 1 that Christ is our apostle and high priest is the high priest of our confession we all confess that as Christians 3 2 it says [01:03:37] There's one point in common between Christ and Moses. They were both alike faithful. I suppose it was a dozen years ago, Ruth and I went to an old order Amish service at Ship Shawana, and we enjoyed it immensely. Both of us understood the language as well as English, so that we just sat there without any effort and understood everything. and it was a very delightful sermon not so strong an organization but very [01:04:13] strong on anecdotes from the Bible and the among other things the speaker told the story by the way in pure Pennsylvania German not no English mixed in pure Pennsylvania German he told the story of how Joseph's brothers came to The Old Man said, [01:04:44] Why, I sure do. That's Joseph's coat. A wild beast has devoured him. And then the Samish preacher said, They lied. and then when he was finished preaching for an hour he sat down and the other ministers bore testimony to what he had said. Do you know what I'm talking about? They indicated that this sermon was in line with the scriptures. And then I almost fell off my seat, I was so surprised. [01:05:18] The Amish preacher who did not preach but who gave a vigorous testimony said Some day we're all going to stand in judgment before the Heavenly Father and nobody will pull anything over on him like Joseph's brothers pulled over on their father. You understand me? And then he said this. This is what surprised me. He said, you won't be asked on that day, were you Mennonite or were you Amish? [01:05:51] He said, you'll be asked, were you faithful? beautiful that's in line with the Word of God Christ and Moses were both faithful and he says that in 3 2 and 3 3 Christ has greater honor than Moses because the one who builds a house has greater honor than the house Moses he says was a faithful servant and he uses a rather unusual word or rather elegant [01:06:23] servant, theropon. And Christ, he says, was the faithful son over the house or the household of God. The Greek word is the ordinary word for house. And then he says in 3.6, I hope you get this, we are God's house if we hold fast to two things. One is our confidence and the other is our hope. I'd like to call attention to the meaning of confidence and the meaning of hope. [01:06:59] Our confidence is that God will keep us. That's our confidence. God will keep us. All my life I've heard our preachers exhorting and exhorting and pleading and arguing and everything else how we've got to be faithful. I wish that it just said occasionally it's God who enables us to be faithful it's God who keeps us it's God that's the reason we can have confidence our confidence does not rest on our stability on who we are our confidence rests in God who keeps us unto a happy end in Christ [01:07:43] and the other word is our hope and that is our hope is that Christ is coming again and at his second coming Christ is going to raise those who have died and we'll be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord and so shall we ever be with the Lord it's a beautiful picture of our hope now the main thing in verse 6 does not lend itself to an English [01:08:15] translation in English we use the word if in two senses we use the word if in the sense that you just don't know for example is it raining tonight in Rome well I don't know at all God knows whether it's raining in Rome but I don't and therefore i would use if i would say that sentence in greece greek i would use the word if it's raining in rome you understand complete uncertainty the other word if we use in english [01:08:48] in the sense of if i'm a married man i have obligations to my wife now that word if means since if ye then be risen with christ that ought to be translated since you are risen with christ Christ, because it's reality. You have on the one hand uncertainty, for if, the other hand you have reality, if in the sense of since. Which do you think he uses here? It's uncertainty. We are God's house if we hold fast. That's a warning against presumption. It says it's up to us. It's a little bit [01:09:31] I would like the old, old story of the young man that came to an old man who was supposed to be noted for his wisdom, and the young man had a bird in his hand, and he said to the old man, Can you tell me if this bird is alive or dead? And if the old man had said he's alive, he would have just closed his fingers in and choked him to death. If it is said he's dead, the young man would have opened his hand and the bird would have flown away. [01:10:04] But the old man sized up the situation and he said, it depends on you. So we are the house of God if, in the sense of uncertainty, if we hold fast our confidence and our hope. Now, have you any questions, or any further thoughts, or any discussion? Alan? The R.S.V. says that we are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope. [01:10:39] And what? Pride. Pride. P-R-I-D-E. I don't think that that's quite the meaning of the Greek. That's 3-6, isn't it? But Christ as a son over the household of him of whom the house we are, we are, emphatic we, [01:11:19] if and on, certainly, the confidence and the boast of the hope. The boast. So that word pride is a free translation of the Greek kathama, which means boast. I didn't realize that. Thank you very much for that thought. Any other questions or comments? Could it be worth having some pride in? [01:11:50] Yes. Yes. I think that we have been so afraid of conceit, and legitimately so. None of us should be conceited. But I think we can have pride in a good sense for a lot of things that we have in Christ. Pride. Any other questions? Or any other thoughts? If he was working with an unconverted Jew, would Hebrew be the book to bring to him? [01:12:28] I think so. I think so. My guess is that the severest problem that the typical Jew has has to do with our doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They think that's three gods, and Christianity paradoxically holds to one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But one God! There's a unity to our God, and there's a, the first word was not Trinity, but Trias, Triad, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. [01:13:08] they're they constitute one God but I remember a Jewish person who spoke to me 50 years ago and said we Jews do not believe in gods we believe in just one God well so does Christianity we have one God also any other questions If Paul had been the writer of this book, wouldn't that also apply to Apollos in that case? [01:13:44] Except that, as far as I know, Apollos never said what Paul did say. Paul said that he did not learn his gospel from anybody else. He got it directly from the Lord. And as far as I know, Apollos never said that. Any other questions or comments? How do the Jewish people then think about Genesis 1.6? Now, let us make man in our image. [01:14:17] Is that the Hebrew too, that way? The Hebrew is very clear on that point. In fact, the Hebrew word for God itself, like in the beginning God created it, that says Bereshit, Barah, that's the third person singular, and then a noun follows in the Hebrew, which is plural in form, Elohim. in the beginning gods literally so you have a collective noun for God which is [01:14:48] masculine plural and yet a singular verb that's a perfect example of the mystery of the Trinity oneness and cry unity at the same time and and God says let us Let us make man in our image, which you just quoted in 126. And the Old Testament benediction says, The Lord, the Lord, the Lord. Do you remember? The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you, and so on. [01:15:19] And the New Testament benediction is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Again, it's a three-fold benediction. But the New Testament is plainer than the Old Testament, which is usual. and so on. And the most remarkable phenomenon in the Old Testament is that which is associated with the angel of the Lord. This angel of the Lord seems to have been the pre-incarnate Christ [01:15:51] because when Abraham was told to offer up his son to God he built the altar and he bound Isaac and laid him on the altar and raised his hand to slay the son and then the angel of God called to him out of heaven saying lay not thy hand upon the lad neither do him any harm for now I know the angel said the angel of the Lord [01:16:25] I know that thou fearest God third person plural C. Thou hast not withheld thine only son from me. So the angel of Yahweh was in some sense Yahweh himself and on the other hand he was distinct from Yahweh. Are you understanding what I'm trying to say? That's an example of the mystery of the Trinity. And it's all through the Bible. It's all through the Bible. Any other questions? [01:16:57] I'm fascinated with the amount of times that they talk about angels. We don't talk about angels. Do they angel? A good example of that is in 114, which I, by mistake, omitted. It says, are they all not ministering spirits for ministry sent forth because or on account of, for the sake of, the ones being about to inherit salvation? [01:17:42] that's that's awfully literal but there it says that angels are ministering spirits sent forth to those who should be heirs of salvation this means that although you and I cannot see angels if we are children of God we are constantly under the care of angels let me give you a one humble illustration when I was I was about 18 or 19. I was hired by the Blooming Glen school system to help another fellow build a tennis court. [01:18:25] And I got there early one morning, and the high school building was open, and it was a room something like this, only bigger, and there were pictures on all the walls. So I started on the one side and worked my way slowly around until I was clear around on that side looking at all the different pictures on the walls. And then I was about to step back so I could get a better view of this picture and I got a feeling of horror I've never had before or since. [01:18:56] About like a rattlesnake was behind me and I looked around like that and here I was about to step into the basement. that is to say there was a trap door open and if I had stepped backward one step I wouldn't be here tonight you can figure out where I would be but I'm saying that seriously I always felt that this was the goodness of God and he evidently used angels to protect me from my own folly [01:19:28] and not looking what I was doing There are just so many illustrations which all of you could add to if you would think of how God has delivered you on many occasions or given you the wisdom and so on. It's part of the goodness of God. Any other questions or comments? My Bible is wearing out, So, I went to the bookshelves in Manor 3 today and picked up one that looked pretty good, and I didn't notice it happened to be in Catholic edition. [01:20:10] A what? Catholic edition. Oh, mm-hmm. And there's a couple times here where a phrase is used that I wondered if it's significant. It's in verse 7, 2-7. Now, it's made him for a little while lower than the angels. Again in verse 9, but we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels. Yeah, that's a possible translation. It is. [01:20:40] Yes, it is. The Greek could be translated either way. It's a little like the Sermon on the Mount, which says, Which of you, by taking thought, can add a cubit to his stature or whatever it is, to his life? In other words, is he talking about how tall people get or how old people get? Be about like you'd say, who is able to extend his body or his life? It's the same idea. [01:21:13] Yeah, that's good. I have a commentary on tape of the 23rd Psalm. And this minister says that at birth we are all assigned to angels, and he feels that the goodness and mercy in the 23rd Psalm are doing to follow us all the days of our life. The best theologians, I think, hold that all Christians are under the care of angels [01:21:48] and all of us are blessed by angelic ministrations. But to hold that a given Christian is always under the care of a given angel, his so-called guardian angel, do you understand me? that's pushing a little bit harder than the Bible pushes it so I wouldn't lift my finger to argue with somebody but I just couldn't assert that myself that a given person is under the care of a guardian angel [01:22:22] I'd rather put it the other way that Christians are under the care of guardian angels that is to say that God sends angels to watch over his children I heard of a man that had to walk through a forest in great darkness one time and he was scared stiff that he was going to be robbed and a person talked to him later and said I was planning to rob you that night he said there were too many of you for me and the man said well I was alone [01:23:00] The guy said, no, no you weren't. He said there was a person walking on each side of you. Evidently he saw something that ordinary mortals did not see. And that's how good God is. Any other questions or comments? Now, somebody called up from the Office of Continuing Education and asked, [01:23:31] Are you planning to run your class from 7 to 9? I said, No, the people can't take it. I've got to go from 7 to 8.30. So you're excused.