Hebrews, Part 5 of 6

[00:00:00] We thank thee, our Father, that thou hast revealed thyself to the patriarchs and prophets of old, and supremely and definitively in thine only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Be with us as we study thy holy word again this evening. Be pleased to lead us into the truth, and grant that our hearts may be warmed as we see how great and how good and how gracious thou art. We pray through Christ with thanksgiving. Amen. [00:00:34] We come now to chapters 9 to 11 of Hebrews, and this could be called the nature of saving faith. There's a good bit of contrast here between the Old Testament way of access to God and the New Testament way of access. In 9.1-10, we have the first section on the Old Testament way to God. Namely, the center of Israel's worship was the tabernacle. [00:01:11] And the temple, by the way, was built on the same plan, only all the dimensions were doubled. Everything is the same in the temple as in the tabernacle, but the tabernacle is only half the size of the temple. He starts out in chapter 9 with a description of the physical arrangements of the temple, the tabernacle actually, and says that it was divided by the curtain into the holy place and the most holy place, which we commonly call the holy of holies. [00:01:55] statement made which causes a lot of trouble to Bible commentators he says that in the holy place on the outside of the curtain there was a lampstand which was a symbol that God illuminates his people and so there was lamp the burning lampstand all the time and then there was the table of showbread SHGW which Could be translated the bread of presentation, which indicates that God nourishes, God provides for the food, spiritually, that we need. [00:02:37] Now he ought to say, if he's describing the building of the tabernacle, that the altar of incense was also outside the curtain. Strangely enough, he says the Holy of Holies contain the Alder of Incense, he calls it the Golden Alder of Incense, and the Ark of the Covenant. Now, the Ark of the Covenant is described properly in the Old Testament as being in the Holy of Holies. [00:03:11] The other is not. And the commentators practically pull out their hair. They say this can't be a mistake, that the writer would have known far better than to misplace such a common article as the altar of incense, and therefore it's believed that on the Day of Atonement, the practice somehow sometime developed that the high priest carried the golden altar of incense along into the altar of incense. [00:03:48] Holy of Holies, so that he had light while he was in there. Now that's only a theory, and it's about the best we can do. Otherwise, we just don't know why the Old Testament places the altar of incense on the outside of the curtain, and here the writer places it on the inside of the curtain. But if it's true that on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, The high priest carried that altar of incense into the Holy of Holies and everything was clear. [00:04:21] And that's about the best explanation that I've been able to find so far. Now this Ark of the Covenant contained three articles. The manna, there was a pot of manna there by which the children of Israel were supplied for 40 years in the wilderness. There was Aaron's rod that blossomed. Remember how different people laid up their rods before the Lord, but only the one with Aaron's name on is the one that blossomed, [00:04:54] designating him as the high priest. And then the main furniture of the Ark of the Covenant was the two tables of the law, what we would call the Ten Commandments, which the Hebrew, by the way, always calls the Ten Words. The ten words, and word there means topic or subject, the ten items of the law of God. Now, above the ark, there were two cherubs. [00:05:28] The masculine plural in Hebrew is im. The feminine plural is oath. So, the Lord of hosts, Sabaoth, that's simply the plural of host. The Lord of hosts Sus in Hebrew means horse Susim is two or more male horses Susoth would be two or more female mares we call And so the cherubim would be in English the two cherubs [00:06:03] The two angels The Gospels which had their faces down toward the top of the Ark and their wings outstretched so that the wings of the one practically met the wings of the other. Remember this? It's a very dramatic thing. Now, between the cherubs, God Almighty symbolically dwelled. This is all we said about God, that he's between the chariot beam. [00:06:35] Remember that in the Old Testament? Now, in the ark was the law of God. Above the law of God, above the ark, was the holy God. There had to be sacrifice made between the law of God and the holy God which was above it. and so the the lid of the ark was called the mercy seat and the high priest sprinkled blood on the mercy seat the mercy seat was between the holy God and the broken law which Israel could not keep this is a highly instructive parable the way the thing was constructed the thing that complicates this is [00:07:27] In Romans 3.25, it says that Christ is our mercy seat. Now, the Tyndale translation of 15.25 translated it, our seat of mercy. Well, that's the same thing. Seat of mercy and mercy seat is the same thing. Didn't the later revisers change it to propitiation? Then the whole concept is lost. The German is very clear. [00:08:00] The mercy seat in the Old Testament is called the Gnadenschtul, the seat of mercy. And Romans 3.25 says that Christ is our Gnadenschtul. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ with his shed blood stands between us. We've not been able to keep the law of God. and yet the holy God loves us because of this sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see that? Romans 3.25. Christ is our mercy seat. [00:08:36] Now he says in 9.6 that the priests, ordinary priests, not the high priest, minister daily in the holy place. The Holy of Holies, 9-7, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies each year on what we call in the Old Testament in Hebrew the Yom Kippur. In modern Hebrew it's pronounced, I think, Yom Kippur. Do you ever hear of it? The Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur. So the high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Covering literally, would enter the Holy of Holies with blood, always with blood. [00:09:15] because there had to be life shed, life given for the transgressions of the people of God. And this blood, the writer of Hebrews tells us, the priest, the high priest offered first for his own sin and then for the sins of the people. But please note, only sins committed in ignorance. If a man sinned with a high hand against God, there was no sacrifice for such an intentional transgression. [00:09:51] What was there? There was always the mercy of God. The sinner could cast himself on God and his mercy and say, Please forgive me because I've committed an awful sin deliberately. but there was no sacrifice in the law for sins done deliberately only for sins of ignorance and weakness now in 9.8 it says the Holy Spirit was thus making clear that the Holy of Holies was not yet opened up [00:10:26] the Greek actually says was not yet manifested but I think opened up I believe that's the reading of the NIV The Holy of Holies was not yet opened up. It is now opened up in Jesus Christ so that through Christ we have full access to God. Now he says in 9.9 that this was a figure, or if you want to use a loose term, this was a parable, [00:11:03] making clear that there was no real cleansing from sin's guilt, the guilt that's in the conscience, in the Old Testament sacrifices. And he tells us in 9.10 that these Old Testament sacrifices basically related to external things such as foods, drinks, various washings, external regulations, what might be called the ordinances of the flesh. external ordinances until the Greek says the season of amendment the NIV says until the new [00:11:42] order came in Christ that's a good equivalent of what the Greek intends the new order in Christ does involve coming to God through him so that brings us 9 11 to 28 to to the New Testament The New Testament Way of Access to God That's our second topic for tonight. There are five topics. The New Testament Way to God, 9, 11-28 is the second thing in our lesson tonight. [00:12:16] Now, here there's a difference of one letter in a Hebrew word and it makes a big difference in meaning. Just like in English, immorality is a vastly different thing than immortality. There's a difference of one letter, but the one letter makes an enormous difference. That T changes it from immorality to immortality. And the King James says, the good things that are to come. [00:12:47] But the best translations read now, on the basis of the older manuscripts, the good things that have come. it's just a difference of one letter but it's a very real difference Christ is the high priest of good things that have come or the good things that are realized we have them in Christ 9-11 and he explains that Christ ministers in a greater and more perfect that is to say a heavenly tabernacle [00:13:20] not of human building Now you can say, well here on earth, isn't it true that the Lord Jesus ministers in his church? Yes, that's true too. And I would like to put a little footnote in at this point. And that is, life is too short for any of us to get sour or bitter. Do you agree with that? And therefore, I would like to be one who's a booster of the church [00:13:51] and who points out the good things in the church rather than to magnify the faults and the human traits and the mistakes and the wrong emphases that some people have. It gets us nowhere. I had an uncle who was forever criticizing the ministers of the church. Now, I'm not saying that he didn't have a point. and I'm not saying that the ministers were perfect. [00:14:24] But there came a day when I visited in that home. I was a young man, maybe 25, and his two children might have been in their teens and he said to me, it's of the Lord that you have come. He said, here are these two children and they want to accept Christ and they don't know what church to join. I wonder why. I wonder why. and I talked the whole afternoon with those two young people and then I went [00:14:54] back to my uncle and I said they're not pro anything they're just anti Mennonite now I'm let's just assume for purposes of discussion that you're Lutheran tonight or reformed I'd say the same thing don't magnify the mistakes that The Church is the most wonderful institution on earth. [00:15:45] Theologians and the 19th century and he established two institutions side by side in North Germany, not far from Bielefeld. One was an institution for people that get epilepsy, there were no good drugs in those days, and the other was a theological school. Now that's a perfect balance between social concern and spiritual concern. The Christian has both. The true church has both. [00:16:18] I hope you won't be offended by my illustration. Ruth and I both have birthdays at the end of December. And as you know, Christmas comes in December too. And we've reached the point where we don't need anything anymore. Do you believe that? I mean, it's foolish that we buy gifts for each other with all the need of the world. So by mutual consent, we send $100 to the MCC for the starving of Africa, rather than buy each other presents we don't need. [00:16:51] It seems to me that's only carrying out this point that we have here before us. That Christ is ministering to the needs of our world. and he does this this ministering in heaven ultimately for his church. 912 by his shed blood Christ entered the holy of holies once for all. That's a very important concept in the book of [00:17:23] Hebrews. Once for all. Christ does everything including especially his death once for all. His death, his blood, accomplished eternal redemption for us humans. Now there have been people who made fun of this whole thing and called it a slaughterhouse religion. That comes awfully close to blasphemy. I don't want to do that. In the New Testament, there are three concepts that are used synonymously. [00:17:55] The blood of Christ, the death of Christ, and the cross of Christ. They all mean the same thing. The blood of Christ, the death of Christ, and the cross of Christ. On the cross is where he shed his blood. On the cross is where he died. And so you can say we're redeemed by his death, or you can say we're redeemed by his cross, or you can say we're redeemed by his blood. Is this clear to everyone? Now he says in 9.13 that the Old Testament system [00:18:30] The New Testament only accomplished ceremonial cleansing. They had many forms of washing of pots and pans and hands and whatnot in the Old Testament so that people would be ceremonially clean. But in the New Covenant, the death of Christ accomplished character cleansing. Character cleansing. So that you and I can be changed. The question is not what we have by virtue of being in the flesh. [00:19:03] The question is, have we accepted Christ's cleansing? Are we new creatures in Christ? How does the old hymn go? Something or other, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Well, that's, pardon? That's right. Would you be free from your burden of sin? Another way to say this is, God wants clean vessels. God uses clean vessels. And it takes a miracle of divine grace for a money-bound individual to become a generous individual. [00:19:44] It takes a miracle of grace for a person who is bound by his sensuality to become a spiritual person. And you can go on to drunkenness and everything else. It's marvelous what Jesus Christ can do to deliver people. Now, notice the continual back and forth from the Old Covenant to the New. The New Covenant was inaugurated at 915 by the blood of Christ. 915 says also that there's eternal glory in the heavenlies awaiting those whom God, by His Spirit, calls to saving faith. [00:20:21] Eternal glory in the heavenlies lies ahead. My father used to tell about a man who was dying and the wife began to cry pretty hard and the dying man roused himself up and he said, if you could have seen what I have already seen you wouldn't weep. And I think that's true. Well, he says in 915 also that Christ died as a ransom. A ransom is the price of somebody's redemption. [00:20:58] And so criminals will ask for a ransom to set somebody free. And Jesus Christ died as a ransom so that we could be set free. Now I'm sorry that for a thousand years this was generally interpreted that Christ paid a ransom to the devil. The Bible never says that. that's ridiculous. God never has to get on his knees to the devil. This is only a figure of speech but it's a very meaningful and rich figure of speech that Christ's death was the price of our being set free. We are now free from the guilt and bondage of sin. [00:21:44] The Old Testament, he tells us, was inaugurated with blood, that is, with animal blood. The setting of this is Exodus 20 to 24. This is called the Book of the Covenant. Exodus 20 to 24. It says in that section that Moses took blood and sprinkled it on the scroll of the law, on the people, and on the tabernacle, and its furniture. So that the writer here can say in the law just about everything is cleansed with blood. [00:22:23] And the climax of this comes in 922 where he says that there's no forgiveness, no remission except by blood. Now in the old covenant, 923, the earthly copies of the heavenly realities were cleansed with animal sacrifices. the heavenly realities were cleansed were made holy by Christ's sacrifice so that 924 he is now our intercessor and notice how he goes back and forth all the time from the old to the new 925 he goes back to the old and he says the Old Testament high priest had to go in on the day of atonement once a year over and over again to make atonement for their sins but Christ [00:23:13] Christ, he says, only had to do it once, and he did it once for all, and he died on Golgotha, 926, the Greek says, at the consummation of the ages, now that's almost a stunning concept, that Christ died at the consummation of the ages, in other words, everything came to a point, everything came to a head, so to speak, When the Lord Jesus Christ died, when he did away with sin by the sacrifice of himself, 927, he says that people, oftentimes the English Bible uses the word man in the sense of a human being. [00:24:00] The German doesn't have that problem. The German calls a male a Mann, M-A-N-N. And it calls a human being a Mensch. But we don't have any two words like that in English. We just say Mann for both. So my father got tired of this when we moved into a German-speaking area where the ministers knew the German Bible better than they did the English. They'd always explain that man means man and woman. [00:24:34] And my father said, well, who doesn't know that? He thought they ought to know it. But I don't think we do know it, because we hear the comment all the time that the Bible is sex-linked. It's masculine. No, it isn't. And the Greek here doesn't mean males. The Greek means human beings, anthropoi. The word for male in Greek is on air and the word for human being is Anthropos. [00:25:06] And that's the latter word that's used here. Human beings are destined to die once, 927. And after this they face the judgment. So he says Christ also was sacrificed once to take away the sins of the people. and he's going to appear a second time that's the closest that we get in the New Testament to the second coming of Christ he's going to appear a second time not to take away sin not to bear sins but to bring salvation to those who are waiting and 1st John 3 3 tells the effect on us if we believe that can anybody quote that verse 1st John 3 3 [00:25:54] 33. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. In other words, it ought to do something to us if we believe that Christ is coming again, and we all believe that. What this means is, if we take the whole New Testament together, that There are three stages in our salvation. The first stage is what we have now. All the gifts, all the fruit of the Holy Spirit according to the riches of God in Christ Jesus. [00:26:32] We have the forgiveness of our sins. We have a prayer here in God. We have peace with God. And we have God meeting all our needs. God forgives us our transgressions. And God loves us. and we are in grace and we are in Christ. There's just oodles of things that can be said about our present salvation. Secondly, Philippians 1.23, when we die, we enter the glory world. That's stage two. [00:27:05] This stage is not described very clearly in the New Testament. But if I may use an illustration that I've used here before, There's a story told about a doctor in the days of house calls who was a Christian. And there was a man dying on his deathbed, and he turned to the Christian doctor and he said to him, Doctor, what's it like on the other side? The doctor said, I really don't know. And just at that point, the doctor's dog began scratching on the door to be left in. [00:27:39] And that was exactly the illustration the doctor needed. The doctor said, do you hear that scratching? He said, my dog doesn't know a single thing about what's in this room. But he knows I'm here. I think that's beautiful. We know Christ is in the glory world. And we go to be with Christ when we die. And that's enough. We don't need to know all the other answers. And the third stage is the fullness of resurrection life. [00:28:12] when Christ comes again, which is described in 1 Corinthians 15, the fullness of resurrection life. Now the third topic for tonight is the Old Testament sacrifices versus Christ's sacrifice, 10, 1 to 18. 10, 1 to 18. Old Testament sacrifices versus Christ's sacrifice. [00:28:44] He says the law, that means the old covenant, the law was only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. Now you can take this up on one topic after the other. atonement or forgiveness or the new birth or Holy Spirit blessings or reconciliation or Christian hope or Christian perfection there's a vast number of topics on which we have a vastly superior salvation now compared with what the children of Israel had in their time he says in 10.3 [00:29:28] In the Old Testament, there was only an annual reminder of sins committed. So the high priest went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement once a year, thus keeping alive the fact that there was such a thing as sin and that sin had to be atoned for. Now the climax of the whole New Testament evaluation of the Law of Moses is in 10.4. We've missed the whole point of the book if we miss 10.4. [00:30:02] He says that animal blood cannot take away sins. The blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away sins. That is to say, the guilt of sin required something far more precious than the blood of an animal, namely the blood of the Son of God. Then he goes on to quote Psalm 40 from the Greek Old Testament. The New Testament writers seem free, if they're making a point, to quote from the Greek Old Testament, [00:30:38] even if that Greek doesn't agree in detail with the Hebrew of that passage. So in Psalm 40, in talking about the Incarnation, which in German, by the way, is called the Menschwerdung, how Christ became human Mensch Verdun in English we say incarnation the coming into the flesh of the Son of God lo I come to do thy will as it's written in the volume of the book and then the Hebrew says mine ears hast thou pierced remember the love slave would serve for seven years or whatever and then if he liked [00:31:24] and he didn't want to leave, he would go to the master and say, I would like to be a love slave to you the rest of my life. And then the owner would take the man to the door post and he would take an awl and punch a hole through his ear. Do you remember that? Mine ears hast thou dug or pierced. But the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, is evidently based on a slightly different wording in the original and it says a body hast thou prepared for me well you can't pierce an ear unless there is a body that's obvious but the emphasis is a little bit different and the writer here appeals to the Septuagint a body hast thou prepared for me in other words Christ became human to fulfill God's intention and God's intention was that the Lord Jesus Christ should die for our sins [00:32:22] God took away animal sacrifices that's the first covenant to set up Christ's eternal sacrifice that's the second covenant you see how superior this is animal sacrifices versus the sacrifice of the Son of God and he tells us in 1010 by God's will we have been sanctified we have been made holy by Christ's bodily sacrifice, on Golgotha once for all. He says that over and over again, that the sacrifice of Christ was once for all. Animal sacrifices, he says, are still offered daily. The temple cultists was going on as this thing was written. And he says those animal sacrifices can never really take away sin. But our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, [00:33:19] Offered one eternally valid sacrifice for sin and then sat down on God's throne. He was then enthroned at the right hand of God forever. His atoning sacrifice had been accomplished. Our sovereign Christ, 1013, awaits the subjugation of all his enemies. and this is pointed out again in 1 Corinthians 15. [00:33:50] It says the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death and death is destroyed by the resurrection from the dead and Christ is therefore sitting at the right hand of God while one enemy after the other is being put down. This means, Christian friends, that the work of the church is going to be victorious. Clear? Christ is awaiting the subjugation of one enemy after the other, and the last enemy will continue on until he comes again and conquers him by the resurrection of the saints. [00:34:34] 10.14. By one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being sanctified, those who are being made holy. 10.15, the Holy Spirit, which was promised through the prophet, is going to internalize God's law. He's going to write it on our hearts and on our minds. This is Jeremiah 31.33. And he's going to grant total forgiveness. Do you believe that, Christian friends? [00:35:05] Or do you still worry about your sins? How human we are. it's easy for any of us isn't it to think back and think how did I was I able to do that how could I do that sin against God all these sins are under the blood they're covered by the blood of Jesus Christ so Jesus Christ came to grant total forgiveness Jeremiah 31 34 these blessings [00:35:40] no further need of sacrifice obtains. Now that brings us to the fourth topic for tonight, which is claim your privileges. Claim your privileges. 10, 19 to 39. He says again in 10, 19 that we have confidence to enter the holy of holies by the blood of Christ. and 1020 by his broken body on Golgotha Christ opened a new and living way just like the people of Israel could not go into the holy place as long as Christ had not died now we can Christ has opened a new and living way 1021 we have a great high priest over God's house or over God's household 1022 let us therefore [00:36:36] Therefore draw nigh to God. And he has four points on drawing nigh. First, he says, we have a sincere heart. Second, we have the full assurance of faith. The full assurance of faith. Being a Christian is not trying to believe what isn't true. It's trying to claim what is true by faith. We believe in God's God's word the full assurance of faith and we have cleansed hearts he says in 1022 and finally we have bathed bodies that is to say we are washed clean in the blood of the lamb 1023 let us cling to our hope for God is faithful let us give thought 1024 to bringing others to two things Christian love and good works [00:37:36] Christian love and good works and then in 1025 he says let's not neglect assembling together let's not neglect assembling together I have a friend who visited an Amish baptismal service over near Middlebury and this friend understood the German perfectly that was being used and before the bishop baptized the class [00:38:06] He asked them, will you be faithful in coming to the services of God's people, even if life itself is at stake? That's pretty sharp. That's exactly what the Christian wants to do, isn't it? We want to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together, especially, he says, as we see the day of Christ's return drawing near. This past Thursday, a man came to see me from Elkhart, and he was telling me about an Amish brother from Holmes County, Ohio, whose name was Stutzman. [00:38:47] And he believed that the day of Christ's return was very soon, so he decided he would wear white clothing, so he'd be ready whenever Christ would come back. and all through the Amish church this fellow was known as Der Weiss Stutzmann, White Stutzmann because he wore white clothes and he was a handyman with tools and he made a throne for Christ to sit [00:39:18] on when he would come and then he made a small chair for him to sit on at the feet of Jesus so he'd be ready. Now we shouldn't laugh at this because this man was very sincere But isn't there a sense in which all of us want to be known as white Stutzmans? We want to be known as those who walk in holiness and in love and in obedience, in purity, in the whiteness of Christ's light. Now he says in 1026 that there's no hope if we deliberately keep on sinning. [00:39:55] That's the NIV. And I think that's the meaning of the passage. after conversion there's no place in the life of the child of God for careless deliberate sinning in human weakness and in human ignorance we often fall short that's true but there's a world of difference between falling short because of human weakness and deliberately breaking the law of God he says in such cases [00:40:28] of fire and judgment and then in 1028 he says that in the Old Testament the testimony of two or three witnesses would put a person to death it was terrible how much greater 1029 the guilt of him who tramples underfoot the son of God and treats as unholy the blood of the covenant and insults the spirit of grace in other words our sin is far greater if we sin against [00:40:58] God will be the judge Deuteronomy 32.36 and his conclusion is it's a fearful thing I believe the NIV says it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God [00:41:28] and so he says in 1032 remember your earlier days of persecution sometimes it was you who were persecuted sometimes you stood there while others were being maltreated and you suffered with your fellow believers when they were in prison you joyfully accept the confiscation of your goods of your property for you knew you had a better and lasting possession in glory therefore 1035 he's going to come back to that don't surrender your confidence because God will richly reward you you need to persevere because perseverance 1036 will be rewarded in a short time that is to say by God's calendar in a short time Christ will come [00:42:26] I will be displeased if, and the Greek is the if of uncertainty, I will be displeased if he shrinks back. But 1039 says we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but we are of faith to the possession of our soul, that is to say to salvation. I want to tell you a story yet before we stand. There was a great writer named Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy, in Russia, two generations ago. [00:43:03] He died the same year I was born. He lived 1828 to 1910. And he wrote a book, a booklet, I should say, What Men Lived By. And up until about 15 years ago, I'd never heard of it. and then one day a seminary student told the story in chapel of this book and I was so impressed I came home and told the whole story to my wife and then it so happened that I was at Heston College not long after that [00:43:34] and I was put in the home of the president and he had a child who was gone from home at the time and they put me in that room and there on the table lay this booklet which I had never seen What Men Live By by Leo Tolstoy and I read the thing again and I talked about it so much my children, I don't know if they had a sense of humor or what but they bought it for me for Christmas and so I've read it a good many times [00:44:05] and I think I know the story fairly well in Russia in Tolstoy's time he says there was a peasant, a shoemaker and then there's the other, the man who's a lawyer living in a certain village and he was very poor. people didn't pay him for doing their cobbling of shoes and so on and they had only one sheepskin coat and so in the coldest weather if the man had to go out of the house she had to stay in till he came back [00:44:38] so she could borrow the sheepskin coat to go out too and he killed a sheep for mutton and he thought if I could just collect the money that people owe me I could have this pelt made into a sheepskin coat then we'd have two one for me and one for my wife so he set out one day and went to all the people that owed him money and what do you think they did? instead of paying him they made excuses one guy lost his job and another fellow had sickness and I don't know it all [00:45:11] and so he collected only a few copecks and got one pair of shoes to cobble so by this time it was getting toward evening so he went to a tavern and bought liquor with the vodka with the copex that he had collected and he started out walking pretty briskly because he had lots of steam and he thought what does a guy need a sheepskin coat for if he can buy vodka [00:45:41] and And he came along the road. It was getting dark by that time. And here, to his utter astonishment, there was a man crouching by the side of the road in bitter cold weather without a stitch of clothing on him. He didn't have any clothing at all. So he passed by on the other side and was going to go on home. He thought, oh, robbers have been here. And then the text says his conscience nipped him. So he turned back and he went to the man who was crouching and almost dead from cold [00:46:18] and it helped him to straighten up and he took off his own coat and put it on the man and he put the shoes that he had that he was carrying to cobble onto the guy's feet but the man was still so stiff he could hardly walk but as they walked along the man limbered up and when they got home the wife was not so dumb and with one whiff she smelled the vodka that he had drunk and she said, here you are, you get drunk, then you bring this bum along home. [00:46:50] And of course the man hung his head, he felt awful bad and then the woman relented and she said, I'll get some of my husband's clothing for you and I'll make some hot soup for both of you. And the man smiled. He smiled. Now that's very important because in the next seven years he smiles three times. And that is a clue to something. So after it was time to go to bed, they said to the man, [00:47:21] you can either lie on the stove, they had great big stoves that reached from one room into the other, they were not hot like our stoves are, or you can go to the loft and sleep up there. He said, I'll go to the loft. The next morning, the shoemaker said, I don't believe you told me who you are or where you're from. He said, I'm not allowed to. He said, what can you do? He said, I don't have any trade. He said, I'm willing to learn. And the shoemaker only had to show him once how to do something, [00:47:53] and after that he could do it better than the shoemaker. And the word spread all through the area how good work this assistant was able to do. and the shoemaker's business picked up and so on. After some years, they had a feudal system in Russia at that time. Do you understand? There were peasants and then there were lords and so on. A lord stopped in and he was a very arrogant guy and he said to the shoemaker, he said, measure my calf for boots. [00:48:27] So he measured him and he said, And if these brutes come open at the seams or lose their shape, I'll clap you in jail. But he said, if they don't, I'll pay you handsomely. And he scared the shoemaker so bad he didn't know what to do. And the shoemaker looked to the assistant and he nodded, you should take the job. And the shoemaker showed the man, the Lord, a piece of leather. He said, how do you like it? He said, it's good stuff. [00:49:00] He said, I should say it's good stuff. He said, it's cost me 20 rubles. I imported it from Germany. And he said, that's what we'll make your boots out of. After the Lord left, by the way, while he was there, the assistant kept looking behind the Lord as if he saw somebody. And finally he smiled. That's the second time. And the Lord said, what are you baring your teeth for, you idiot? Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist [00:49:58] A moment later, before the man could even answer, there was a knock at the door, and a servant stood there, and he said, The Lord has just died of a stroke. He said, Don't make boots, make slippers for the corpse. And the assistant said, In just a minute they'll be finished. After seven years, the assistant was greatly moved one day. I think the German would be erect. [00:50:30] He looked out a window and he saw a woman coming and she had one normal child and one child who was crippled. And the assistant could not get his eyes off of that trio. And then the shoemaker said to her, I don't believe I know you. She said, I'm not from this village. He said, I know that. I know everybody in this village. And you're not from this village. No, she said, I live in such a village. And she said, seven years ago, there was a couple living in our village, [00:51:03] and the woman was pregnant, and the man worked in the woods. And a few days before she delivered, the man was killed, and so the widow had to bear the twins alone. And then she died a few days after that, and she had been sitting up in bed with the twins, and she fell back and broke the leg of one of the little twins so then then these poor orphans were left without a father or a mother and she said the men of our village had a conference [00:51:39] and they came to me and they said she said I just had a baby too and they said you're the only woman in town that can nurse these babies would you do it well she said I'll do what I can and she thought What I'll do is nurse my own baby, and nurse the one that doesn't have a broken leg, and let the other one die. But she said, I was young and strong, and the poor little thing didn't die, and I had plenty of milk, and I fed all three babies. [00:52:10] And then she said, in the course of time, my own baby died, and I was left with the two orphans. and at that point she gathered the two children in her arms like this and she said how I do love them and the assistant smiled that's the third smile in seven years after the woman left the shoemaker said to the assistant I think it's time now for you to tell me who you are the assistant said yes it is [00:52:43] He said, I was an angel of God in heaven, and seven years ago, God sent me down to get the soul of that woman. And he said, she saw me, and she pleaded for her life. She said, what will happen to my children? The father's gone, if I'm gone too, what will happen? And he said, I pitied her, and I went up to heaven without the soul. And God said, where's that soul? and he explained God sent another angel down to get the soul of the woman [00:53:17] and he did it. He said I have smiled three times because God sent me down as a man to find out the three things that people live for that they should live for. The first lesson that came to me happened the night you brought me home Your wife showed love, and I said to myself, well, that's the first lesson. [00:53:49] People should live by love. Do you see what Tolstoy's getting at? People should live by love, not for money, not for recognition, not for anything else. They should live for love. Secondly, when that Lord, with his big mouth, was standing in the shoemaker's house, He said the angel of death was behind him about to strike him down. And I learned my second lesson. All men, all people are mortal. [00:54:23] You know, a lot of people don't know that yet. They're terribly upset when a death occurs. We shouldn't be. We're in the land of the dying. We call it the land of the living. But all around us people are entering eternity all the time. It's normal. At a certain point we're born, at a certain point we die. All people are mortal. And the third lesson was the greatest of all. When I saw how these twins were so adequately cared for, [00:54:54] I learned my third lesson that God does provide. God does meet people's needs. God does look after us all. Now, Tolstoy could have put all that in two or three sentences, but it wouldn't have been half as impressive as the story that he tells, which I thought I would share with you this evening. Let's stand for a little bit. Chapter and the last topic for tonight, the nature of faith. Hebrews 11, the nature of faith. What do we mean by Christian faith? [00:55:30] Well, in 11.1, he describes Christian faith. He says it's the reality of what we hope for, the certainty of what is not seen. That's a very beautiful description. The reality of what we hope for, the certainty of the unseen. And he says the ancient believers had it. I think the King James says the elders, but it doesn't mean church officials. It means the people that lived in the past. [00:56:02] So ancients is not a bad translation. 11.3. By faith we grasp that the worlds were formed by God's word, so that the visible was not made from what we can see. That's a tremendous statement. This is a high watermark in the book of Hebrews. this faith chapter now he proceeds to give us 12 illustrations of the power of faith first he says faith made the sacrifice of Abel, A-B-E-L, Adam's son [00:56:40] better than Cain's God called him righteous and he though he's dead is It's still speaking. Faith made, enabled, I should say, able to offer a better sacrifice than Cain. The second illustration is Enoch. Faith enabled Enoch, who was removed from this life without dying. God took him because he pleased God. [00:57:11] So Enoch is the second example of the power of faith. And he says only faith can please God for the convert must believe that God exists and that God rewards the earnest seeker. The third illustration is righteous Noah gave heed to God's warning and in holy fear, as far as I know this is the only place in the Bible this is said about Noah, that he was simply scared. [00:57:45] He acted from holy fear and built an ark which saved his household. Through this obedience, the Greek says through which, he condemned the world and received the righteousness which is by faith. Fourth illustration. Abraham went, I believe the German would say here, by blind faith. A German hymn says that. blind faith. Abraham went by blind faith to the land which was destined to be his in obedience to the word of God. By faith he lived there like a stranger. Now we 20th century people don't realize what this meant. [00:58:33] Ur of the Chaldees had indoor plumbing like we do and he went from a highly civilized area to a very primitive area and lived in tents the rest of his life because he was a stranger and a pilgrim. He dwelt in tents like his co-heirs, his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. It says he looked with expectation to the eternal city, The one with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. [00:59:07] That's a tremendous thing. This is elegant. It's really elegant. And by faith Abraham, he says, when he was an old man, and his wife Sarah was barren, he became the parent of Isaac, because he considered God faithful, who had promised. And so from one as good as dead, there came descendants as numerous as the stars of the heavens, or the sand of the seashore. All these, he says, 11, 13, died in faith. They did not receive the things promised. They saw and greeted them from a distance and regarded themselves as foreigners and sojourners on the earth. [00:59:51] One of our Indian missionaries said to me a long time ago, I love beautiful homes, same as anybody else, but I have learned to put that secondary. I never expect to have a beautiful home. I'm not so sure they didn't, but at least this missionary was ready for that. And that's what's said here about Abraham. He was willing to be a foreigner and a sojourner on earth. Do you know the gospel song, this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through, my treasure is laid up somewhere beyond the blue? [01:00:30] That's the Christian attitude. We sit lightly, right? We sit lightly on the things of this world because we know we're only here for a short time and this world is not our home. And the writer says, people who talk like that give evidence that they're seeking a fatherland, patrida. Pater is the Greek word for father, and this is patrida. They're seeking a fatherland. I forget what the English says. [01:01:01] A country, I think. You know. But the Greek means fatherland. 1115. Had they had their mind on the land they left, they might have had opportunity to go back but he says they aspired to a better land the one in glory so God is not ashamed to be called their God and he has prepared a city for them do you know the song [01:01:34] it's a little bit silly it talks about 50 miles of elbow room I don't think we're going to have that in the glory world I think we're going to live as a city we're going to live in the most wonderful fellowship we have ever experienced on earth far better than anything we have here it'll be the heavenly city 1117 by faith when God tested him Abraham offered up Isaac as an offering to God though the promises centered in this one and only son for God had promised in Isaac your offspring will come [01:02:12] Abraham held that God could raise Isaac from the dead which in a figure came to pass remember the story how God tested Abraham and he said Abraham he said here I am he said take now your son your only son Isaac to a mountain that I will show you and offer him there as a burnt offering I think Abraham's head must have dropped but the Bible says [01:02:42] The next morning, Abraham got up early and saddled his donkey and set off with Isaac for that destination. Now listen carefully. When they got to the foot of the mountain, Mount Moriah, Abraham said to the servants, You stay here. The lad and I are going yonder to worship, and we will come again. That's what the Hebrew says. and the NIV puts that we in [01:03:12] the King James does not but it's in the verb we will come again and here the writer explains Abraham had figured it out that God would raise him from the dead but it turned out that God had a better solution than that I think even Abraham must have been led by the Holy Spirit because as they were going up the mountain the son said to the father He said, here you have the fire, and you have the wood, but where's the sacrifice? [01:03:47] Remember that? And Abraham said, God will provide a sacrifice, my son. And that's exactly what he did. He provided a sacrifice. Now we go to the fifth illustration, Isaac, 1120. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. This is a reference back to Genesis 27. Jacob was promised that his tribe would have good crops, they would have sovereignty over the nations, this came to pass in the days of Solomon, and lordship over relatives, and so on. [01:04:24] Esau, the poor guy, didn't get very much. He was told that he would live by his sword, and ultimately he would break Jacob's subjugation off, he would escape from Jacob's domination. This came to pass when Herod, who was an Edomite, was a ruler, a king, over Israel. The sixth illustration is in 1121. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed his twelve sons and worshipped God as he leaned on his staff. [01:04:57] I looked this up in Genesis 49. You have Reuben in verse 3, Simeon and Levi in verse 5, Judah, the fourth son, in verse 8, Zebulun, in 13, Issachar, 14, Dan, 16, Gad, 19, Asher, 20, Naphtali, 21, Joseph, a very long section, 49, 22, and finally Benjamin. The seventh illustration is Joseph, who near his end spoke of Israel's exodus from Egypt, and he said, [01:05:33] Take my bones along. Do you remember that? Take my bones along. And I was so impressed when Millard Lynn wrote this up in the Quarterly, oh my, 20 years ago, and he told how the Israelites talked in hushed voices when they would come upon the casket containing the bones of Joseph and they would say that's where Joseph's body is destined to be taken to Palestine. Then we go in 1122 to Moses' parents [01:06:06] how they hid him for three months they were not afraid of the king's commandment and the Hebrew says he was very fair The book of Acts 7.20 says he was fair unto God. That means exceedingly fair. The NIV paraphrases it. It says he was no ordinary child. But I wish we could let the original stand. He was an exceptionally attractive child. [01:06:38] That's not too far off. The ninth illustration is Moses. Who was an adult? Rejected the courts of Egypt. And then I made a list of the things here. He rejected the courts of Egypt. Second, he chose mistreatment with God's people. Third, he said no to the brief pleasures of sin. Fourth, he saw the superiority of Christ's disgrace over the treasures of Egypt. [01:07:09] 5. He saw the rewards of obedience in eternity 6. He left Egypt 7. He persevered because he saw the invisible God that is to say by faith he looked to God and finally he observed the Passover and the sprinkling of blood on the lintels against the angel of death Here I'd like to use an old illustration that goes back to about before World War I. [01:07:45] There was a preacher who came to Honeybrook, Pennsylvania, where I was born, and he talked about what it would have been like to visit Israelite homes in the night of the exodus, when Moses had given orders for them to sprinkle the blood. One family would be all chewing their fingernails and nervous and worried and bothered because here's their only son and tonight the angel of death is coming through. And you say, well listen, didn't God make any provision? [01:08:18] Oh yes, he did. That's right. Well then why are you so worried? You go to another home and the Israelites are singing glory, glory, hallelujah because they're all so happy that God has made provision for their child. and then the preacher said now who was most safe he said they were all safe if they were under the blood it doesn't depend on our feelings it depends upon our relationship to Christ is this clear to everybody it doesn't depend on our feelings it doesn't depend on our assurance it depends upon [01:08:54] being in Christ. So Moses observed the sprinkling of blood so the angel of death would pass over that's where the Passover comes from would pass over the houses that had the blood. Then we have in the Exodus the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea and the Egyptians tried it and were drowned. That's Exodus 14. Then we drop 40 years later to the conquest and by [01:09:24] faith, the faith of Israel, the walls of Jericho fell down, and on the seventh day they went around seven times. Remember that case? And then they all shouted and the walls fell down. And the twelfth and last person that's described in detail is Rahab, 1131, who was spared destruction. This is Joshua 6, the same story as the walls of Jericho in Joshua 6. Then he mentions a whole class of people. He says Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel. And then the prophets. He said I don't have time to describe all these things. [01:10:06] And he lists 16 things that these people did. They conquered kingdoms, administered justice, attained the promises, shut the mouths of lions. Who's that? That's Daniel. Quench the flames of fire, escape the sword, in weakness were made strong, were powerful in battle and routed armies Women received their dead Do you remember the Shunammite woman? How Elisha went in and raised the boy from the dead They endured torture, jeers, flogging, chains, imprisonment, stonings [01:10:38] They were sawed in two, killed by the sword They had inadequate clothing, the world was not worthy of them They wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and lived in holes in the ground. They all lived by faith. 1139 Yet they did not receive the ultimate promise. But we Christians have. We have the blessings of the fulfillment of Jesus Christ. And even the Old Testament saints are made perfect with us in Christ. [01:11:12] Here is taught. I hope you're listening. The continuity of God's people from the old covenant to the new and their unity in Christ. 200 years ago, there was a great poet in England named William Wordsworth. Did you ever hear of him? William Wordsworth. He had a brother, not so well known, who was a bishop in the Anglican Church. His name was Christopher Wordsworth. [01:11:44] He was born in 1774 and died in 1846. I'd like to close with a beautiful, I think a beautiful hymn that this Christopher Wordsworth wrote which is based on this passage that we just looked at. Hark the sound of holy voices chanting at the crystal sea. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Lord to thee. Multitude which none can number like the stars in glory stands [01:12:15] Clothed in white apparel holding palms of victory in their hands Patriarch and holy prophet who prepared the way of Christ King, apostle, saint, confessor, martyr, and evangelist That's the gospel writers Saintly maiden, godly matron, widows who have watched to prayer joined in holy concert singing to the Lord of all are there they have come from tribulation and have washed their robes in blood washed them in the blood of Jesus tried they were and firmly stood mocked imprisoned stoned tormented sawn asunder slain with sword they have conquered death and Satan by the [01:13:09] Now they reign in heavenly glory, now they walk in golden light, God of God, the one begotten, light of light, Emmanuel, in whose body joined together all the saints forever dwell. Pour upon us of thy fullness, that we may forevermore God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost adore. [01:13:40] Isn't that moving? I think it's the most beautiful poem I ever read in connection with this chapter. You're excused.