Kootenai Church: Hebrews

Will you please turn with me for one final time in this series to the book of Hebrews? One final time unless this sermon becomes two, in which case—no, this is the final time. I think. Hebrews 13:22–25, and we're going to read these together.
22 But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
23 Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you.
24 Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
25 Grace be with you all. (NASB)
Last week after the sermon, somebody came up to me and was a bit confused and said, “So was that the last sermon in the book of Hebrews?” And I said, “No, there's still verses after what we covered last week.” And of course, it was K.T. Kinne, so she's always confused. But I explained to her that there would be yet one more sermon in the book of Hebrews. The goal of preaching, by the way, is never just to go slow. If that were my goal, I would speak a lot slower than I speak. So the goal is never to just go slow through a book. The goal is always to handle the text and give it adequate time and adequate attention so that you think about the theology that is behind it and connect it to its context and make sense and deal with the issues that come up in the text, applying them to our life and the context in which we live. And the nature of the text really determines whether you go through a passage quickly or slowly. The nature of the text determines that. So sometimes we would spend four Sundays in one verse and other times we go through four verses in one Sunday. Today we're doing the latter, four verses in one Sunday.
These are the closing verses of the Epistle and they're not intended to be loaded with theological content or application. They are really his closing remarks, some personal comments, a little bit of private or personal information. And this affords us a little bit of a chance to reflect upon our study of the book and what we have learned so far. And you'll notice that his comments are brief. He's going through briefly some brief statements on things pertaining to his situation and his readers. And so today's sermon is going to be a few brief comments on these brief comments in Hebrews 13.
We're going to take a moment here at the beginning to give some consideration or thought to how much of our lives has been occupied by the book of Hebrews. We started Hebrews on November 27, 2017. So that was six and a half years that we spent in this book. Now that, November 27, 2017, was seven months before we moved into this building. So we started that over in the school. Those of you who were here may remember. Some of you were single when we started Hebrews and you're married now. There are people who are alive today and exist who never existed when we started the book of Hebrews. And there are people who are dead today who were alive when we began this book. In fact, when we started Hebrews, all of my children lived at home, none of them were married, and finishing Hebrews, all of my children are married and out of my home, and I have four grandchildren. Which means that I should have started Hebrews a lot earlier than I did. And in case you're counting, this is sermon 251 in the book of Hebrews. But the author says in verse 22 this was brief. So be thankful that he didn't go on any longer than he did.
So we need to do something. Before we jump into the verses—I've never done this before, but I want to do something here just for the sake of my own curiosity, and I think the curiosity of the whole congregation. If you came and arrived at Kootenai during Hebrews 13, I'm going to ask you to stand. I'm going to ask you to remain standing. So if you came here in Hebrews chapter 13—that includes if you're new today and you've never been here before. This is technically still Hebrews 13. So will you stand up, please? No applause, just stand up. Others are going to join you here in just a moment. All right, now if you came to this church in Hebrews chapter 12, will you please stand up? Remain standing. If you came here in Hebrews chapter 11. Some of you are going back through your Day-Timers and looking online to see when you showed up. Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 10. A few here in Hebrews—oh, a lot in Hebrews chapter 10, OK. That was about July of 2018 then. Hebrews chapter 9, will you stand? Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 7, 6, 5. Nobody from 5? OK, you just saved us preaching through Hebrews 5 again. Hebrews chapter 4? Chapter 3? Chapter 2? Chapter 1? Well, no, if you started here in chapter 1. You sit down, you were here from the beginning. I'm married to you. Sit down. She was here in 1996, she stands up like—first thing she remembers is Hebrews chapter 1. All right, those are all the people who have arrived here in the book of Hebrews. And I promise you, I could cut—all of you would leave if I started this book over again. Go ahead and have a seat.
All right, beginning at verse 22, we're going to notice the final appeal here. So here's what we're going to do this morning as we wrap up the book of Hebrews, hopefully. We're going to go through verses 22–25. We’re going to look at these closing comments, and then I'm going to give you three general lessons from the book of Hebrews that will sort of recap basically the three significant truths and lessons in this book. Beginning at verse 22, let's read it together. “But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.” Now he asked them to be patient with him for what he has written, and he uses a phrase translated “word of exhortation.” It's the same phrase that is used to describe a sermon in Acts 13:15 regarding Paul when he stood up in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch and preached a sermon on his first missionary journey. That sermon is referred to as a word of exhortation. And I mentioned at the beginning of the book of Hebrews, there are a number of features of this book that make it sound as if it was originally preached as a sermon and then transcribed, or maybe had been a manuscript for a sermon at some point and then had been customized at the beginning of the book and the end of the book and then eventually delivered to somebody. It does have some of the notes of a sermon, a word of exhortation. And by the way, it really is an exposition. A sermon is an exposition, or at least should be 99.99999% of the time. A sermon should be an exposition, which is an explanation of a passage or a series of passages. And what we have in the book of Hebrews is really an exposition of Psalm 110 and a bunch of other Old Testament texts that relate to that. But if you were to ask really what does the book of Hebrews explain, it is that Psalm that we began with reading, Psalm 110: I have sworn You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. That is a central theme right in the middle of the book, dealing with the priesthood of Christ and His offering and His sacrifices. So it is entirely appropriate to describe the book of Hebrews as an expository sermon or expository treatment of Psalm 110 with supporting Old Testament texts and themes. So it's appropriate that he would describe it as a word of exhortation, and he asked them to put up with or to bear with the word of exhortation.
Now, why would he ask them for patience or tolerance, as it were, in embracing what he has just given to them? It is because, as we talked about last week, what he has just told them has been some very stern and serious exhortation. He knows that not all of his readers were going to respond positively to this letter, to this Epistle. Some of them were going to be offended as he talked to them about sin and compromise and pursuing holiness. Some of them would be exposed as he talked about apathy and indifference and even apostasy. Some of them would be revealed as unbelievers as he described the true fruit of true and living salvation. And so he has called them in this Epistle to fully embrace the very thing that was causing their suffering, which was their confession of Jesus Christ. And he encourages them to lean into that and to not go back to what would make their life comfortable. He has drawn a line in the sand, as it were, and he has told them, “You've come right up to this line, and yes, you are suffering as a result of this. Step over, lean into that line, step over that line, and fully embrace your confession and your confidence in Christ, and be not ashamed of it, and be willing to bear the reproach of that if necessary.” That type of exhortation in a world in which you are suffering for that confession of faith, that kind of exhortation would be one that you would not want to hear. And so he has to ask them to be patient with this, to put up with this word of exhortation.
He says in verse 22, “I have written to you briefly.” Would you describe the book of Hebrews as brief? Maybe not if you've been here since November 27, 2017. And maybe not if you've sat through 251 messages in the book of Hebrews, but it is a letter that is less than ten thousand words, making it shorter than the book of Romans and shorter than the book of 1 Corinthians, and in fact, the book of Hebrews can be read in a little less than an hour, making it about the length of one sermon. And it makes one wonder what else the author might have edited out and considered to put in the book that he didn't. He says, “I've written to you briefly,” which suggests that there was more that he could have written about and included and developed, but he didn't, and he doesn't say, “I've written to you exhaustively,” but instead “I've written to you briefly.” In other words, I've kind of given you the highlights of what I would like to write to you about, but for the sake of time and space, he wasn't exhaustive in what he could have written to them about, and it kind of makes me wonder what got dropped on the editing room floor, as it were. What was it that he could have addressed or could have brought out that he didn't, but he excluded for the sake of time and space? Because what is contained here has actually been very intellectually taxing material, complex doctrine loaded with Old Testament allusions and references and expositions and quotations. The theology of Hebrews is high. It is glorious. It is high Christology. The exhortations are practical and straightforward. And yet he says this has been a brief word of exhortation, meaning there were a bunch of things that he could have said that he didn't. And this is not the only statement that really makes me wish that he hadn't been so brief. But if he hadn't been so brief, this wouldn't be our final day in Hebrews.
And I want you to notice in verse 22, what he is exhorting his readers to do in terms of embracing the truth, this is what should characterize every true believer in their attitude toward the truth. No matter how hard it is to hear, no matter how personally offensive it might be, regardless of how difficult it is to understand or accept or embrace, if it is truth and it is contained in Scripture and it is being delivered to us, we ought to put up with, to bear with, and to embrace it. That's the attitude of every true believer toward the truth. Woe to the man or woman who only receives the truth that they want to hear. and dismisses or excuses away everything else.
Verse 23 is some noteworthy news. This was breaking news to them. “Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released.” Your version might say, “Knowing that our brother Timothy has been released.” It is not an indicative, indicating that this was something that they knew, but instead it is an informative statement. He is relaying to them information that they had not known just yet, that Timothy had been released, “with whom,” he says, “if he comes soon, I will see you” (v. 23). And what we learn from this is that this was a congregation, a group of people who knew Timothy, which means they would have had likely some association with the apostle Paul at some point, Timothy being a close companion of the apostle Paul. They would have had, at the very [least], secondhand knowledge of Paul's doctrine and Paul's letters, and probably would have had a number of Paul's letters with them as a congregation if they knew Timothy and had some association with him. Timothy had been imprisoned, and it could be that he was one of their leaders that he exhorts them to obey and to submit to in verse 17. It could have been that he was one of the elders of the church. And now he has been imprisoned; we don't know for what. And again, this is a reason why I wish it weren't so brief here at the end, but it's possible that he is one of the prisoners that the Hebrews were exhorted to show sympathy to or were commended for showing sympathy to back in chapter 10. “You showed sympathy to the prisoners,” he says at the end of chapter 10 (v. 34). It's possible that Timothy was one of those prisoners that these people had shown sympathy to.
By this time, Christians were being imprisoned for their faith all around the empire. Sometime prior to the writing of this letter, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. . . . Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1, 3). And Timothy certainly did then suffer hardship, for he was imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. What we don't know from this verse or from any other passage of Scripture is where Timothy was arrested, when Timothy was arrested, how long he was imprisoned for, how much he suffered in that imprisonment, when he was released or even why he was released, where he was held, where did he go after his release, did he return and eventually see these folks, and did the author of this Epistle eventually meet up with Timothy and make his way back to this congregation? We don't know any of that. I kind of wish he hadn't been so brief.
And then notice the final greetings in verses 24–25: “Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all.” Passes along a general greeting to the leaders and to the saints, and then he mentions Italy. When he says, “Those from Italy greet you,” you might at first glance think that would tell you something about the location of somebody, either the writer or the audience of the book of Hebrews, but it's a little unclear as to exactly who they were from Italy and where the people from Italy were at. Were the people from Italy in Italy, or were the people from Italy somewhere else sending their regards back to Italy? We don't know any of that, just that some people who were with the writer at the time were from Italy sending their greetings to this congregation. It's possible—one of two things is possible. There are two options. First, that the author is in Italy writing to Jewish brethren somewhere else, and so there are people in Italy that they would have known that are sending their greetings to wherever the letter is going, to the recipients there. So he's speaking on behalf of people who are with him, those who are from Italy. “The brethren from Italy who are with me greet you.” Or it could be a reference to the letter going to saints in Italy, and there are some other people who were from Italy who are sending their greetings back to Italy through this letter. So it tells us something about the location of the writer, or the location of the recipients, but we don't know which one. Don't you wish he hadn't been so brief?
“Grace be with you all” (v. 25), for that is what we need, that is what we seek. Grace is God's unmerited favor, and it is offered to us in Jesus Christ. Now that could be the shortest sermon I preached in the book of Hebrews if I stopped right there, but in an attempt to turn this one sermon into two sermons, I want to go through three lessons from the book of Hebrews, and this could be three sermons, so just be thankful that these three points did not become three sermons. Three lessons from the book of Hebrews. First, the supremacy of Jesus Christ; second, the necessity of enduring faith; and then third, the danger of unbelief. Those are the three lessons. The glory of Christ, the necessity of enduring faith, and the danger of unbelief.
This Epistle—and I'm going to begin back in chapter 1, so you're welcome to turn there and try and keep up with me as we go through the highlights of this Epistle, but I want you to first notice the supremacy and the glory of Jesus Christ. This book is about Him. It's not about Melchizedek, it's not about Old Testament sacrifices and Old Testament feasts, it's not really about faith like Hebrews 11 talks about. This is really a book about Jesus Christ, and the emphasis is on His work. His Person and His work. Before starting the book of Hebrews, if you were here back then, you remember we went through the book of John. We spent seven years in the Gospel of John looking at the Person of Christ, the glory of the Person of Christ, and the work of Christ because John deals with both of those issues. The Person of Christ is the primary theme of the Gospel of John, also describing the work of Christ because these two things are tied. The book of Hebrews is the perfect mirror image of that because it really describes the work of Christ that is built upon the Person of Christ. So we get the Person of Christ in the book of Hebrews, but really it is the finality and the fullness of His work and its implications for us that is the focus of the book of Hebrews. This book is about Him.
So chapter 1, verses 1–4:
1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
3 And He [that is, Christ] is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature, and [Christ] upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. (NASB)
Right out of the gate, he tells us He is the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, the ruler of all things, and having made purification for sins (that is His work), He sat down at the Father's right hand, and there He sits making intercession for us, having become much better than the angels because He has inherited a greater name than them.
Then for the rest of chapter 1, the writer of the book compares Christ with angels and says, “To which of the angels did God ever say this?” You have that series of quotations from the Psalms where he is comparing the Person of Christ to angelic beings, and you see right away in the very first chapter, there is no comparison because this One who is greater than the angels and better than the angels is Himself God in human flesh. That is what chapter 1 teaches. He is the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, and the ruler of all things, and chapter 1, verse 8 says—this is God calling the Son God. Hebrews 1:8: “But of the Son He [that is Yahweh or God] says [and he's quoting from the psalm], “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.” To which of the angels did God ever call God? It never happened. But of the Son (that is, Christ), the Father says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” Now those two psalms, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, that we read at the beginning, that describes the rule and the reign of the Messiah, the throne that He will someday take. And this is God, this is Yahweh, saying of Christ, “This One is God. And this One will rule and will reign, for His throne is an enduring throne.” So He's greater than the angels. He doesn't even share the nature of angels. He is above angels. He's the creator of angels. That’s chapter 1.
And in chapter 2, He is better than the angels because God has not subjected to the angels the world to come, but has instead given everything over to this One who is incarnate and offered a sacrifice for sins and then rose again. God has given not only all of this world but also all of the world to come—He has committed that to the Son. Hebrews 2:14–15: “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” This One who is called God in the Old Testament took upon Himself flesh, came and shared in flesh and blood, that He might die and thus defeat him who had the power of death over us and used it to keep us in fear of death all of our lives. So He's greater than the angels.
Chapter 3, He's greater than Moses. There in chapter 3, he compares Christ with Moses, showing that Moses was a faithful servant in all of God's house, but Christ is the Son of that house. Christ is the builder of that house. And so Moses served Him. Moses wrote about Him. Moses was a servant to this Yahweh who has come in human flesh, who is greater than the angels. And so Moses wrote about Christ even when he wrote about the Sabbath. For Jesus is our Sabbath, and He provides us, the believing sinner, with true rest. He's greater than the law, and He is greater than the Sabbath. He is greater than Moses, for He has provided things for us, His people, that Moses could never provide and that the law could never provide, namely a clean conscience, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and life eternal. That has been provided for us in Christ. Moses could never do any of that. And so He is offered—there's the contrast in chapter 3 and chapter 4 with the Sabbath rest, that if you turn away from Christ, who is the Sabbath, who is the fulfillment of the Sabbath, then you are actually turning away from salvation and grace itself.
Then in chapter 5 we see that Christ is greater than the Old Testament priesthood, and this is a theme that continues through chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, that Christ is greater than all of the Old Testament priesthood. And he makes a detailed argument showing that Christ is greater than the Aaronic priesthood, He is greater than Aaron, He is greater than Abraham, greater than Levi, and greater than the entire Old Testament priestly tribe. He is a priest, but He is a priest of a different order, not a descendant from Levi's tribe, which was the priestly tribe, but instead He is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Being the divine Son, He has no beginning. Being the divine Son, He has no end. And so God swore to Him before anything else, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” And now having possessed that priesthood and occupied that priesthood, He now lives forever so that He may intercede forever for those who are given to Him by the Father and those whom He saves. That is a magnificent priesthood. He ever lives to intercede and to save those who come to Him, for He is a better mediator.
And because He is a better mediator, He can inaugurate a better covenant. That's chapter 8. A covenant that is more excellent, built upon better promises. Look at chapter 8, verse 6: “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” He's better than Moses, and He has inaugurated a better covenant than Moses gave to the people.
And because He is the one who shed His blood to start a better covenant, to inaugurate a better covenant, He is therefore a better Savior and a better priest. Look at chapter 9, verse 11, and here's the contrast between the Old Testament priesthood and Christ. Chapter 9, verse 11:
11 When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb. 9:11–14 NASB)
You see, through that one sacrifice, Christ did what no Old Testament priest, what no Old Testament sacrifice could ever do, namely to cleanse the conscience and to finally atone for sins. He is a superior sacrifice, a superior priest of a superior priesthood who offered a superior sacrifice and shed a superior blood in that He offered Himself for the sins of His people. Chapter 10, verses 10–14:
10 By this will we have been sanctified [or made holy] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 [Now look at the contrast] Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.
14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. (NASB)
Greater than every Old Testament character, greater than every Old Testament picture, greater than every Old Testament feature, feast, tabernacle, temple, worship service, gathering, person, ordinance, law, Sabbath, rest, greater than all of them. He has done, as the righteous Son, what no one else could do. He offered one sacrifice for sin and has forever accomplished final and full salvation for any and all who will come to Him and believe upon Him and trust Him. He has borne the wrath of their sin and rose from the dead three days later. He has ascended to Heaven, and He will return again as promised to judge the living and the dead, and now He intercedes for the transgressors. Now He offers not only forgiveness of sins but also His righteousness and His continual intercession on our behalf because He is a priest that lives forever and is able to save to the uttermost any and all who come to Him. That's how glorious He is. See, this book is about Him. He came to save those who were given to Him by the Father, and to do what no king, no holy man, no prophet, no priest, no sacrifice, offering, festival, ceremony, Sabbath, ritual, or angel could do, to finish the work, so that we could have our sins forgiven and be declared righteous in the sight of God. Not just hope to be made righteous at some point in the future if we can do enough to attain that righteousness, but to be declared righteous here and now, not on the basis of any of our works, but entirely on the basis of what Christ has done for us in our place. That's the good news of the gospel. We get His righteousness, and He takes away our sin. Only Christ has done that.
He saves forever all who come to Him by faith, which brings us to the second lesson from the book of Hebrews, and that is the necessity of enduring faith. Faith is the means by which we receive the grace of God. The good news of salvation is that you can do nothing to earn your salvation. That's the good news. It's also the bad news. You can do nothing to earn your salvation. That bad news is good news as well because that means your salvation doesn't rest on what you do. It rests entirely on what somebody else has done, and if you understand that, see that, and intellectually acknowledge that, then God commands you this day to repent and to believe that truth, that your salvation and your forgiveness of sins rests entirely upon the work of another.
And so the author calls upon us to place our faith in that work, and that's Hebrews 11. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (v. 1). The type of faith that saves and secures His people everlastingly is a faith that, though it does not see the fulfillment of the promises of God or, listen, any way in which the promises of God can be fulfilled in this moment, believes the promise and trusts the promise, not because they can see tangible things that are associated with that promise, but they believe the promise because God has said it. They see it in God's Word, that the one who trusts in Him will not be put to shame, will not be disappointed, that He will save to the uttermost all who come to Him. And so then the author says you must have faith in that, a faith that looks to that promise and that hope and says, “I will believe that.” That is the faith which is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. It rests upon the promise of God's Word alone and says, “Even though I cannot see it, even though I cannot feel it, even though it is not real to me in the moment, it becomes real because I see it with the eyes of faith and I trust it and I put my confidence in it.”
And then we have this long list of characters, which give us illustrations of that kind of saving faith. As it turns out, the Old Testament and human history is filled with examples of men and women who believed the promises of God even when their eyes could not see any way that those promises could be fulfilled. And that's the type of faith that pleases God. Hebrews 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” So the one who comes to Him must trust not in their own work but in the work of Christ.
And the one who insists that they are good enough to get into Heaven on their own, that they're going to stand before God and have their good deeds weighed against their bad deeds, is going to find out that all they have is bad deeds. There are no good deeds outside of Christ because they are offered up from a person incapable of doing anything that pleases God. Your deeds cannot please Him, your works cannot please Him. All the things that you can do, that you think you can do to atone for your sins and iniquities, none of those things can please Him. What pleases Him is faith. Reach out and lay hold of the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ and the full forgiveness of sins. That is what pleases God, not an effort to do good, to atone for your sins, or to merit His favor, for none of us can do that.
So saving faith, enduring faith, is a faith that reaches out and believes the testimony of Scripture. You have to trust in a Jesus you have never seen. You have to place your faith in a resurrection that you did not witness. And you have to entrust yourself to an intercessor whose current intercession for you you cannot watch. Trust the Savior who has left you His Word, and believe His promises, and repose your sinful soul upon that Savior, and you will not be disappointed. That is Scripture's promise. He is the cornerstone. He is the rock. He is able to save. He is willing to save. He died in order that He might save. Come to that Savior.
Enduring faith is a faith that turns its back on the pleasures and treasures of the world, like Moses, who endured rather the ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Moses considered “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Heb. 11:26–27). That's faith. You see what is unseen and you endure in that. That's enduring faith. It treats what is unseen as substantive. It is convinced of what has been promised even though they do not see it. Enduring faith turns its back on the world.
Enduring faith enjoys moments of victory, chapter 11, like we see with Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel, who conquered kingdoms and obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, escaped the edge of the sword, put foreign armies to flight, extinguished the fire. And faith also endures the sufferings in faithfulness as well. The mockings and scourgings, the chains and imprisonment, being stoned, sawn in two, and put to death by the sword. Faith endures all of that. Faith is what marks men and women of whom this world is not worthy, for we are being made fit and worthy for a world that is to come.
And faith looks to Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. This is Hebrews 12:1–3. And faith commands us to turn our eyes onto Him and to look to Him who has run His race and endured the cross and despised the shame and sat down at the Father's right hand, to look unto Him so that we may run our race well, that we may endure well all the way to the very end and cross the finish line as well. And in order to ensure that we will cross the finish line, the Father is always and ever disciplining us, which doesn't mean punishing. It means chastening, training, equipping us through the sufferings and the afflictions of this life. All of the hard times of this life and everything that we endure is all endured at the hand of a loving Father who sends those things to strengthen us for our race so that we will finish it with joy.
And the difficulty we are called to embrace is the reproach that faith brings, with a reminder that those who endure the reproach of faith receive the reward of faith. Endure the reproach. Your commitment to Christ will cost you, and enduring it and being willing to pay that cost is the fruit of true saving faith. True saving faith considers the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all that Egypt could offer. And so then, the author says, you go outside the gate, you leave everything behind, you join that new community that's outside the gate at the place of reproach and there gladly bear the reproach of Christ, knowing that you have for yourself a lasting city, an eternal city, and a kingdom which shall be your reward. And because He is worthy, He demands that kind of faith and obedience and faithfulness. And He is worthy of it. He is greater than all else, and He, by His own blood, has secured your everlasting joy and salvation, and He, by His grace, has promised you a kingdom and a lasting city, and He will raise you up on that last day. You will not be forgotten. You will not be left behind. He will gather in all those who have come to Him by faith, for He ever lives to make intercession for them and He ever lives to save all who come to Him, and He loses none of them. That is His promise.
Now those who respond to that with unbelief do not belong to Him. And that brings us to the third lesson of Hebrews, and that's the danger of unbelief. The glories of Christ, the necessity of enduring faith, and then third, the danger of unbelief. One of the features of the book of Hebrews has been the five warning passages that we have gone through. And one of the reasons that it took us so long to go through the book of Hebrews is because when we got to those warning passages, which many people say teach that you can lose your salvation, we sort of hit the brakes, tapped the brakes just a little bit, slowed down, and took our time walking through those and thinking through the implications of those warnings. There are five warning passages in the book of Hebrews, and they all warn against different expressions and different manifestations of unbelief.
The first warning passage in Hebrews 2:1–4 is a warning against drifting. He says take heed that you do not drift away. And that is a warning against doing nothing in unbelief, just apathy, like somebody sitting onboard a ship might be carried along by the current, and they see the safe harbor on the horizon and rather than turning the tail of the boat toward that horizon and going that direction in order to make sure and to get into the harbor of safety, they just sit and do nothing while the boat drifts past the secure harbor. So be careful, take heed, listen to what you are being told, exercise faith lest you just do nothing and drift by. Hearing the truth demands action. And you can sit here week after week after week, from Hebrews 1 all the way until today, and hear the glories of Christ proclaimed and the necessity of your salvation proclaimed, but if you do nothing and you take no action whatsoever toward that in repenting of your sin and trusting in Christ for salvation, you will drift right past and you will perish in spite of all the truth that you hear.
The second warning passage is in Hebrews 3:12–4:11, and it is a warning against disobeying. First one is a warning against drifting. The second warning passage is a warning against disobeying. Do not be like the children of Israel who heard the Word of God and yet disobeyed in unbelief—they would not enter into God's rest. They understood the command, they had God's promise, and rather than acting upon it, they went exactly the opposite way and disobeyed. A warning against being disobedient. Christ is our rest, and your disobedience to Him will result in your eternal punishment. But if you lay hold of Christ, you have rest for your soul and rest for all of eternity.
The third warning passage is Hebrews 5:11–6:12, and it is a warning against departing. That's outright apostasy. This is the person who sits close enough to the fellowship of God's people, the preaching of truth, and the living of truth to be warmed by the fire, but they never actually embrace it. So they get to enjoy all of the blessings and glories that attend a fellowship like this of people who love the Lord and serve the Lord, and yet it's always at arm's length while pretending to be one of us, pretending to be amongst us and in us. They keep us at arm's length, and eventually they turn and walk away and depart and leave the faith, having never been actually redeemed or regenerated by that faith at all. That's the danger of apostasy or the danger of departing, to be so close to enjoy the warm fellowship of a church and all of the blessing that God pours out upon His true people—you taste the glories of the age to come in that closeness, but you never actually enter into the glories of the age to come. They never become yours. You just experience them in a superficial way and then depart and leave the faith.
The fourth warning passage is in Hebrews 10:26–31, and it is a warning against despising. If you go on sinning in unbelief, having heard all of this truth so far in the book of Hebrews, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Instead, in turning away and repudiating it, despising it, you trample underfoot the blood of the Son of God, who died in the place of sinners. How will you escape? That is the question that the author asks. How will you escape if you trample underfoot that sacrifice? That is a warning against despising the sacrifice of Christ.
And the fifth and final warning is Hebrews 12:25–29. It is a warning against dismissing. It's just simply refusing and dismissing. “See to it that you do not refuse,” verse 25 says, “Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.” To disregard the truth and to turn away from it is to court the judgment and punishment of God for sin. He has offered a sacrifice for your transgressions that is sufficient. It is glorious, it is perfect, and it is finished. And if you walk away from it in unbelief, dismissing it, despising it, departing from it, disobeying it, drifting past it, then all that is left for you is the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. We are accountable to the truth that we have heard. Stiffen your neck, harden your heart, respond with disobedience, and the justice of God will fall, and rightly so. If you drift and neglect the gospel, or disobey and harden yourself to the gospel, or depart and forsake the gospel, despise Christ and deny the gospel, or dismiss His warnings and refuse the gospel, then you have the punishment that is promised in this book, for you have decided that you are going to stand before God in the robes of your own self-righteousness and plead your case on that day. And you cannot do that before the bar of God's holy justice. So He commands you to embrace by faith the Savior, who is Jesus Christ, who has offered the sacrifice and paid the price for sin.
Those are the lessons that the book has been pressing upon us—the glory of Christ, the necessity of enduring faith, and the danger of unbelief. So, now the question: have you responded to this truth of Christ with faith, believing and trusting Him for your salvation, to deliver you from the power of sin and the penalty of sin? Have you been born again by the Holy Spirit, turned your back on sin, and come to the One who made an offering for sin and suffered in His flesh, in His body, to pay the price that you deserve? Have you entrusted your soul to Him who is fully able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him, and have you placed your faith in Christ the substitute? That is the question that confronts us.
Or have you sat here and listened week after week, entertained and interested but taking no action, just enjoying the blessings of truth but not embracing them, listening and remaining hardened in unbelief and pretending to be part of a believing community while you continue in your rebellion and your sin? I beg with you on behalf of God today if you have not been reconciled to Jesus Christ and to God through the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, turn in repentance and faith today. There is a Savior who holds out His hand of forgiveness and grace to you and offers you His righteousness, which is the only thing that will avail for you on the day of judgment. When you stand before a holy God, you will stand in your sin or in the righteousness that Jesus Christ has merited on your behalf. Continue in your sin and you will stand in the presence of a God who casts you from His presence and says, “Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity.” If you stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you will stand there only by faith in Him and trust in Him. And then you will be welcomed and embraced into His eternal kingdom and the city that He has prepared for all those who place their faith in Jesus Christ. Those are the things that are at stake with faith and obedience and disobedience and unbelief. That is what is at stake. Nothing less than eternity.
You've been warned of the judgment to come. You have been exhorted to the glories of salvation in Jesus Christ. Do not walk away until you know that the state of your soul is secure in Christ. You do not know what tomorrow brings. You do not know what this afternoon may bring. That's the book of Hebrews, and may the purpose of this book be secured in the hearts of all who have heard any of the preaching of this book.