Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Well, hello, y'all there's a fresh one. Hello, y'all dwell. Yes, Texas. Yeah. Texas has kind of were wearing me down a little bit. What it's causing me to change. I'm not wearing boots or nothing yet. At least not cowboy boots, but. Uh, but it is getting on me. It's getting on you, like it's in a good way or a bad way. I think mostly a good way. I mean every, every everything has its effect on you, you know? So I'm just. I'm curious, you know, that place has changed you, everything changes, everything has an impact upon you. The question is what kind of impact does it have? So I think the changes are good. I guess you'd have to tell me, California people, if you see good changes or bad changes, If you see bad changes, please let me know. Uh, if you see good ones, then, then I want to know about that. All the good ones. Yeah. Only the good ones. Yeah. Yeah. Although if Canada becomes the 51st state, then Texas is going to become the third biggest state in the nation. And that's true. I would welcome Canada. I don't know. They're very polite people. Yeah. But I don't know if I trust them. Well, there are people that put Trudeau. In in office. Well, We put Biden office. So. And, and common to shame, but we also get rid of them. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Anyways. So I'm trying a new approach. This Sunday. To my preaching notes, I'm using a mind map. Wow. Yeah, you are getting. Wow, you're going out there. I am getting very adventurous is going to be an adventure. I'm using my node, which is the. No, that one. Yeah. Um, and it's been, it's been helpful, man, just to see, to structure my thought process on my notes, everything for those of you listening, you don't care. But normally I take a manuscript up to the pulpit. Um, I try not to read it. I think I've gotten to the place where I don't read it anymore, but, uh, and that's been quite a while, but, uh, my map is, is different. It's going to be a little bit more of an outline style and a challenge, some things. So. Okay. Tuning forward to hearing the results and then find out how that goes. We'll let you know if we don't like it, that okay. I trust you. Well, We will. I have no doubt. I just mean we, we will let out, well, I tell you, we'll tell you. Okay. Anyways. Hey, let's jump into Hebrews. Cause we'd get a lot of ground to cover. And we had a lot of Google yesterday. We've got less today. Enough to cover at least a couple of days. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Hebrews chapter one opens up with this great statement about, uh, the, the way that God has communicated in first, he talks about how God communicated in the past. And he says, uh, in the past, he communicated at many times and in many different ways. And he's talking about the old Testament. He mentioned profits specifically here. Uh, but you can think broader than profits there. I think you can think about the, the, uh, the old Testament law you can think about the Psalms. I think this is a, is meant to. Uh, what is the word when it's. When it's a part, a singular part that's meant to represent the whole, it's a, there's a grammatical term for that. There is a great medical terminate. It escapes me right now. It's not Is it? No, that's not, it it's something, but it sounds something like that. Yeah. Yeah, it's some strange word anyways. That's what's going. The camps. The neck Dicky. There it is. Yeah. Anyways, that's what's going on here. I think when he uses the word profits and he's contracting and he's saying, but now today in the last days, and, and notice that that's where we are right now. And why is it the last days? It's the last days, because we're not waiting on any other prophecy to be fulfilled between now and the return of Christ. Um, John's going to call it the last hour in first, John. So we're in the last days now we've been in the last day since the resurrection of Christ. So that's been. You know, near on 2000 years. Uh, so it's, it's different and we need to remember that. And Peter's going to talk about that in second Peter, about those that are going to say, Hey, where's the promise of his coming? Why isn't it here yet? But that's why the writer of Hebrews says we're in these last days. And he says, in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son. Now I think John chapter one, the word became flesh. The Lagasse of God. The most direct, clear communication that we've ever experienced came from the person of Jesus. And that the theme of Hebrews. And so much. So is this the theme of Hebrews that pastor Ron and I both preached a series through Hebrews right around the same time, back in California, him to the high school students, to the college students. And we called it the same thing. Jesus is better. Um, and that's the theme of the book of Hebrews he's writing to a group of, of, uh, most likely Jewish converts. So Jewish believers tempted to leave Christianity to go back to Judaism. And so that's why there's a heavy Jewish undertone to this. Uh, and he's probably probably writing this before 78 D you see why before 78 D because he never mentioned the destruction of the temple. And if the temple had been destroyed, that would have been a huge. Uh, a huge pro towards his argument of saying, Hey, what are you going to go back to you? There's not even a template anymore. So probably early on in his writing, but he's writing to say Jesus is better. And that's how he opens it. He says, he spoken to us now by his son by Jesus. And so he's the one that's superior. And he talks about his superiority to the angels. And this opening section here that the there's, you're going to notice some familiarity with collage in chapter one. And then he just goes off and quotes all of these old Testament passage. There's a lot of that in the book of Hebrews pastor, rod, what should we do with these old Testament references as we come across them, as we're reading them, it's like, okay, there's a song. There's a second, same, other's Deuteronomy. There's a song. There's a song. What should we do with these things? I think you need to appreciate what the, what the writer or the preacher of Hebrews is Dylan, and that he's helping you see how Christ fulfills the old Testament. Everything points to him. He gets fulfilled in him as Jesus would say in Matthew chapter five. Uh, that he completes, he fulfills the law and the profits. And so you're seeing how these things culminate in who Jesus is. We got to learn to read our Bibles better. I mean, I, I wish these texts would, in my mind, come to come to the fore much more easily. Sometimes I'll read those texts. And the alarm bells won't go off until I look at my study notes or I'll look at the cross references on my Bible page, my electronic Bible page. And it'll say, oh, this was cited in Hebrews chapter one or something like that. Hebrews chapter one is relatively easy. In fact, it cites a lot of the same book, but. The, uh, the problem, I think, is that many Christians don't know their Bibles well enough to appreciate what he's doing and what he's saying. So I think, Hey, appreciate it. But B I would also investigate it. I would look at the old Testament part that he's quoting. If you have the time to do it anyway and see what's the context, what's he trying to say? Is there more there than what meets the eye often there is. And so at least those two things appreciate and investigate. Would you add anything else to that PPG? No, I think those are helpful. And I would just say. Yeah understand too, that, that this is a, an author using these passages under the inspiration of the holy spirit to apply them the way he is, which means, which means it's not given to us to just take any old, old Testament passage that we want and make it say what we want it to say. Do you think that's what he's doing? No, I don't think he that's what he's doing. I don't think that's what he's doing here. Um, Yeah, I'll stop there without, without getting any, any deeper in that. Oh boy. But it's, it's just important for us to remember, like this he's he is writing these things under the inspiration of the holy spirit, but. I don't know if that was helpful or not. Maybe it wasn't. Um, what's the name that he is inherited. And it's sticky. He's talking about Jesus. He is not. That was one of the people in Philippians that was arguing. That's right. It's the neck to key in. Uh, so I think the name is Lord. Okay. Oh, R D capital L capital O R D. Um, So I think that's what the illusion is too. But I also know that there's a, there's a disagreement about that, but I'll just leave my cards. I think it's the Lord. Right. Yeah. There's a whole debate about this because what's interesting is right after his saying that he says in verse five for, to which of the angels did he ever say you are? My son. So there's a strong argument that the name that he inherited is the name of son. And that he wasn't always the son of God, eternally speaking, always the second member of the Trinity, but inherited the name of son. At the incarnation or perhaps it's Psalm two. When the Lord declared today, you are my son. That's a good thought. Yeah. So. Um, Anyways. That's more than we have room for in the DVR podcast. But if you've got more questions about that, you can write to pastor, rod about that. Uh, okay. Chapter two, we get into, uh, some, some addressing of the main issue. And the main issue is they were, they were attempting being tempted at least. And some of them probably were drifting and turning away from their, their professional faith in Christ and in wanting to go back. And so. He, he has a lot of warning passages in the book of Hebrews. Um, and he's going to warn them against drifting back against drifting away. And he's going to try to push them closer and closer to Jesus, because again, Jesus is better. That's the answer here. And so he, it starts there by, by talking about the law. He says the message declared by angels. That's the law. It proved to be reliable. People that broke it, they suffered judgment for that. And then he says, how much more will we suffer judgment if we reject Christ, if we. If we neglect such a great salvation, that's been offered to us in Jesus. So again, he's, he's pushing. Uh, towards Jesus and he goes on and he praises Christ and talks about what Jesus has done. Verse nine. We see him for who for a little while was made lower than the angels. That's a quote, back to Psalm eight. Namely Jesus crowned with glory and honor, because of the suffering of death. Uh, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone, for everyone. So, in what way did Christ die for everyone? This gets into the question of limited versus unlimited atonement. Um, unlimited to tell him it would say the death of Jesus was, was for everyone. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of all mankind. Uh, my, my struggle with that is, is I think at the end of the day, functionally, all of us have to be limited to Toma people to avoid the problem of double jeopardy. A double jeopardy being that there is a sin being punished in, in two ways, the same crime. Getting double the punishment that that's something that doesn't work, that doesn't line up. And so if God poured out all of his wrath, if Christ tasted death in the sense of. Effectively satisfying God's wrath for the sins of all mankind on the cross. W. Then nobody's in hell. Um, but if it was instead for the elect for those that he is called and those that he has chosen well, then that, that explains it. So what's he talking about here with, for everyone? I think that a helpful paradigm though, it's not perfect is to think about it this way. The death was sufficient for the payment of everyone's sin. Uh, it was efficient or effective for the elect. And so there's the difference there in pastor, rod, your thoughts on that? Yeah. I agree with that. I like that. I appreciate that. Um, I know that. I think the way that you said it probably best reflects a sentiment that most people bring to the table here, which is it's enough for everybody. Uh, the infinites the infinity of Christ sacrifice the riches of his grace. If every single human being who ever lived repented and trusted. That'd be more than enough to cover that and still have more to dispose of. Now, but effectively there's, we'd have to think narrowly in terms of its application. There's no way around that. Right? Right. Uh, verse 14, he's laying the groundwork for where he's going to hit. And chapter four, which is the passage we are all familiar with, but he says here that since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise particular the same that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. So he's talking about the, the necessity of Christ is going to be our mediator. He's going to talk about him as our high priest in chapter four, he's got to be made like us. He has to come in in the flesh. And so he's talking about that purpose there, that he did that. And then he goes on in chapter three to talk about. The superiority of Jesus to Moses. Why Moses? Well, again, if he's writing to a group of Jewish Christians tempted to go back to Judaism, Moses was one of their heroes. And so he's writing to them saying, you know what? He's a worthy of more glory than Moses is. Moses was a servant. Jesus is the son. Uh, there's a difference there. And so he says there that we need to be careful, and then he's going to pick up a lot of language. About the Exodus. And he's going to say, Hey, listen, don't harden your hearts. Like those that were part of the wilderness generation. And that's going to bleed into chapter four. He's going to be saying, stay the course. There's a rest. That's even greater than the rest that Moses promised the Israelites. And in fact, It's still the, the rest remains John Moses. Didn't enter into the rest. Joshua didn't enter into the rest. It's still out there. So don't fall by the wayside the way the wilderness generation did, but continue to press on it. Continue to hold fast, continue to verse 11 of chapter four. I strive to enter the rest that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. And so he's calling this group of, of believers tend to do to abandon their faith, to stay the course and continue to pursue and press on. Chapter four end. End of chapter four, verse 14, we get the introduction of Jesus. Then as the high priest that we have, and again, riding through a group of Jews, they would have been sensitive to that reality of the high priest in, in he Saint Jesus is a better high priest. He's been better than Moses. Now he's a better high priest and this is going to be a lot of, most of the rest of Hebrews is Jesus' priestly role. Uh, and he's a high priest that, that can sympathize with our weakness. Why? Because again, he was made like us, like we talked about just a second ago in chapter two. And he's able to sympathize with our weakness because in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. So we've talked about temptation before on the podcast, special route, but let's, let's refresh. There's a difference in this temptation versus the temptation that is probably more common to you and I, and mankind in general. What's the difference? How was Jesus' temptation different than the temptation to. Uh, to, to overeat that maybe somebody has. Yeah, we would have to distinguish between the kind of temptation we experience, which is generally speaking, internal and external. There's the external, there's the billboard or there's the, you know, someone handing you $20 to. Compromise in some kind of nefarious activity. And then there's the internal poll when someone does that from the outside, there's something inside us that resonates and says, yes, I want that. Yes. I, I, um, I'm, I'm eager and some way shape or form to attend to that thing that you're offering me now, I'm some kind of elicit backroom D D uh, deal. Uh, whereas for Jesus, there was all the external pressures that you and I would face, but it had nowhere to land. Think about an airplane trying to land at the, at DFW or love or, or John Wayne. And there was a place for it to land, talk to air traffic control. You're you're on Lane's such and such. And the airplane lands. No problem has a place to go where it would. Jesus. His airport has no lanes for the evil to land upon his heart. So there's no place for him to be pulled toward the sin and the way that you and I would. So when we experienced temptation, versus when Jesus experienced him temptation, it is. Uh, it's categorically different. It's the same in that he was tempted in every way that you and I are, but different in that it can't land. So does that diminish, then someone might ask, does that diminish his ability to empathize with us? Pastor PJ? Well, yeah, that gets into, yeah. Th th the question of it's called palpability versus impeccability. Uh, whether or not it was possible for Jesus to sin. And we would say, as you were just talking about, no, it was never possible for Jesus to sin because for Jesus to Sidney would cease to be God. And that was never going to be part of the equation. So that's what power did that temptation to hold? Well, You can be hungry. And feel the hunger pains and know the temptation to say, yeah, I could take that rock and turn that into a loaf of bread, but that's not what ultimately the heavenly father wants. You can feel the hunger that's causing you to have the desire to say. I wish that that were bread. Without actually giving into the sin and, and, um, and, and that's wearing it. It's hard for, for us because. James talks about the progression of sin. That temptation is first and then temptation conceives, and then their sin and sin. When it's fully grown, gives birth to death. Um, That there's kind of an unbroken chain that takes place there, but, uh, but here with, with Christ, There there wasn't that inevitability there. Well, I mean, there was the inevitability that he would never sinned, but he still felt it. And so in that sense, he can. Empathize with our feeling tempted. Uh, by the things that Lauren entice us. The chapter five, then he talks about being appointed as the high priest because no high priest ever took that office himself. And in the writer says neither did Jesus. Jesus was made a high priest by the father. The father installed him in that even said in Psalm one 10, you are a priest forever. After the order of milk is a deck we're going to get to Mel because. Thankfully not today because we don't have enough time to get to Milkis the deck today. Uh, although I wouldn't have been surprised if they just said, yeah, take chapter seven to. Um, But anyways, he's making that point there and then he says this, and I think this is important for us to notice. He says, although he was a son verse eight, he learned obedience through what he suffered and being made. Perfect. Became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. In what sense did Jesus need to be made? Perfect. Well, that's where understanding the word there behind the word. Perfect is important. It's a word that. Uh, can also mean complete. Um, and so in the sense that Jesus was made the perfect and complete in fitting high priest for us by enduring and undergoing the suffering that he went through. And that's, that's what he's talking about here in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplication with loud cries and tears. That's guest Semeny. Well, what was Jesus praying and guest 70 who's praying father, if there's any other way, let the cup pass from me and the author saying the response that he heard from the father was. The sun, there is no other way. This is the way that this is the way for you to meet me. The perfect, complete. Fully qualified high priest for the people. And that's part of the plan that is taking place there. So that's what it means that Jesus. Learned to. Through suffering. He was, he was perfected through his suffering. Uh, learned obedience through suffering. It wasn't anything inherently lacking within him. It was just, he was brought to the fullness of qualification as the high priest through what he endured as he suffered on our behalf. Yeah. And this is not too different from our understanding of Jesus, having to live a whole life in order to acquire the righteousness that you and I deserve. So we're familiar with the concept and the idea. We just may not think of it in these particular terms, but make no mistake. This is exactly what we're talking about. Jesus had to live the years that he did to be our perfect sacrifice. He could not just be born die. The next day rise from the dead. Otherwise he would have done that instead. He has to live a full life, 30 some odd years in order for him to acquire the righteousness that you and I are needed to be saved. Yeah. You said something interesting at the beginning of this, you, you called him a preacher, the one writing this and that. A lot of people look at the book of Hebrews as a sermon. And it's probably the most sermonic of all of the epistles. If we can call it even an epistle in that sense. And it's interesting because he gets pastoral here. Right? And then the next section that we're going in in chapter five, he says, you know, we would love to dive into this even more than we can, but right now we can't because though you guys, at this time, you gotta be teachers. Uh, you have somebody to go back over the basic. You need someone to walk back through the basics and the fundamentals of the faith with you. And that's just a reminder to us church that, that we need to be growing. You, you should be stretching yourself. We're getting ready to turn the calendar. Uh, in, into a brand new year, set some goals to read some deeper stuff out there. Pick up a systematic theology, pick up a book on. N a specific area of theology. watch it sign up for a log. I said, ed class, or take a CBI compass Bible. That'd be even better. Take a cup as Bible Institute class with us. Um, do something like that. That's going to stretch you and cause you to grow because this is a situation where the scripture is implying. He as believers, we need to continue to, to grow in our faith and stretch ourselves. Chapter six then. Uh, he says we need to leave the elementary doctrine of Christ behind it and go on to maturity, not forget the gospel. Uh, but we need to progress beyond that. We need to not just major on the gospel and never grow in our depth and understanding of the character of God, but, but move forward. And then he introduces something that's caused a lot of problems starting in verse four. I'm just going to read it because it's important for us to deal with this head on for it's impossible. In the case of those who have once been enlightened and who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the holy spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. And then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying. Once again, the son of God, to their own harm in holding him up to contempt. Now, this passage is one that a lot of times people will point to and say, look, you can lose your salvation. This is somebody they would argue who is a believer. And then that believer falls away, loses their salvation. And, and so the point of this is evidence two problems with that number one. If that's the case, then they're done. Because he says it's impossible to restore them again. Uh, to repentance. And usually those that would teach that you can lose your salvation are the same ones that say, oh, just pray the prayer and get saved again. If you're doubting your salvation, we'll just pray again. Just pray again, and maybe you'll get saved again. Or I rededicated my life to Christ. I came back to, okay. If this passage is teaching you, you can lose your salvation. And we're going to use this as a proof text for that. Well then anyone who falls away is done, there's no coming back. Second is verse nine. He says, though, we speak in this way yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. So I think verse nine is super helpful for us because he's distinguishing salvation from what he's just been talking about. And so who is the person of chapter six? Well, there's a lot of ink spilled on that subject, but I think this person. Is the person who is trusting in Austin, Moses, or proximity to the church for their standing with God. And they have been given time and time and opportunity after opportunity to repent and trust in Jesus. And they resist and they resist and they resist and they resist until finally they decide I'm done. I'm going to walk away and God gives them over God. Romans one turns them over to their desires and in that person is permanently in a state of being hardened. Towards Christ and towards the church. And so this is a warning to make sure that you have not been a beneficiary of all these things in the goodness and even been enlightened in the sense that you grow in your knowledge. And you've. Tasted the heavenly gift and the fact that you've participated in church activities and in, in the body of Christ, maybe you've even shared in communion as a, uh, you know, fraudulent believer, uh, self deceived believer. And yet you are not truly surrendered to Christ. And then you finally say, I'm out and you leave. This is a warning against such person doing that because it's a grave thing, pastor. No thoughts on that. Uh, briefly, I'll just say that. I think so. There's. One of the ways to read passages like this in the book of Hebrews as, as a genuine warning. Um, and that tends to be the way I lean. I can be convinced otherwise, but I lean toward, this is a real warning to real Christians. Um, and it functions much in the same way that a real guard rail would work on a, on a, on a mountain side. We talked about this before, so. Hypothetically. If you run into the guard rail at 65 miles an hour, you will fall off. You will tumble over and you'll probably die. I think this is how this works. So the guardrails there to say, if, if you plow through it at this speed, you're going to go over. Uh, but I trust that you won't because a Christian is not trying to get as close as they can to the guard rail and try to run their lives over the cliff. They are trying to stay close to the mountain to hug the mountain and to stay close to Christ. And I think that's the function of this, the warnings in the Hebrews. I understand them to be real warnings, to real Christians who by the warnings, God will use to preserve them so that they don't fall over. Fair enough. Yeah. I think that's the purpose in there for sure. And the cause the purpose is, you know, the, I could see the person sitting out there and going, how do I know I'm not self deceived? Well, I think that's why passengers, like this exist to keep, keep you from being that person that has self deceived. Right. And a Christian will introspect and say is. Does this mean? Examine myself, make sure that I'm not walking the wrong direction or living my life in a wrong direction. So, yeah, I agree with you on that sense. And examining yourself. That sounds like a great sermon topic for like the start of the year. And would that be. A great thing if we recorded that, that would be amazing because that was part one. Part one of the MBS servant, and it wasn't recorded. So. Why is he goes on in chapter six ends and our podcast. And I just note here, one thing I would encourage you to know coming off the heels of that warning passage. How much he focuses on the full assurance of hope and the certainty and the surety and the guarantee and the strong encouragement to hold fast in Christ as the steadfast anchor of our soul. It's almost like he ends chapter six saying, Hey. Again, we're convinced of better things for you, Christians things about salvation. And then he uses such language strong language about certainty and guarantee and holding fast there just to warn us, but also hold out the hope of, of security that we have in Christ there at the end of chapter six. That's right. Leave them on a high note. Yep. All right. Yeah. We'll let's pray. And then we will be done with this episode. God, keep us from, uh, having anybody that is guilty of the Roman six fraudulent faith or that the Hebrew six fraudulent faith. Um, help us to be those that are examining ourselves that are heating the warnings as guardrails and hugging the mountain of Christ. As we continue in this life, we want to grow as. He chided the church there for not being further, along in their faith than they work on guard us against that help us to be a body of believers that are growing and deepening our faith. And that's going to look different from every, but for each person in the church, there we're all at different stages of our walks, but help us to always be wanting to, to grow more and to deepen our understanding of Christ. And so we ask this, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Are you all will keep on reading. Keep on keeping on and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. See. See. ya. Bye.