I've entitled this message, Suffer
This Word of Exhortation. This is unique to the book of
Hebrews. There is not another epistle
that ends with this kind of statement. Suffer this word of exhortation. And that word of exhortation
was everything in this epistle which he said. as he described
it as being written in a few words. I like that. You know,
somebody says Hebrews is a long book. Well, I love the way the
Hebrew writer said it's just a few words compared to what
could have been said. And isn't that always true? This
exhortation written in a few words. Now, what does it mean
to suffer this word of exhortation? What's the word, suffer me? Well,
let me give you some other translations. Endure. Stick with. Continue in this word of exhortation. Do not leave this word of exhortation. Receive this word of exhortation. Bear with. Meaning, carry it
out to the end, this word of exhortation. Pay attention to
this word of exhortation. Take kindly to this word of exhortation. Listen patiently to this word
of exhortation. He's speaking of everything he'd
said. Now, I love the way he calls this epistle an exhortation. That word means a call to come
near. This is God's call to come near. It's a summons. And in this word,
we have the idea of comfort, encouragement, and refreshment. The Holy Spirit, when He's called
the Comforter, it's this word, the Exhorter, the Comforter. the paraclete. It's an appeal, not merely an
academic recitation of facts, but an appeal. And notice the
way he says, I beseech you, my brethren, he's speaking to his
brethren, people he loved. Now, while the messages of the
gospel is authoritative, and it is, this is God's word. There's a divine authority, the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an authoritative message,
but the delivery of the message is one of beseeching. That's the way the gospel is
to be preached. Now, you know what it is to have someone talk
down at you. And you know what it is to have
a preacher preach down to you. You know, that's ugly. That's
not the way the gospel is to be preached. He speaks of a word
of exhortation. Now, when we began this book,
I think it was about two and a half years ago, maybe only
two years ago, a word that stood out in this epistle when we began
this book is the word better. It's found in this epistle many
times. Beyond the best is the better. Christ is better. I don't care
what you're talking about. Christ is better, infinitely
better than anything else. We read he's better than the
angels. These mighty, majestic creatures that are greater in
power and might than we are, they're still creatures. They're
his creatures. He's the creator. Christ is better. than the angels. We read in Hebrews
7, 7, that his priesthood after the order of Melchizedek is a
better priesthood than the priesthood of Aaron and Levi. It's a better
priesthood, saves. Aaron never could, the Lord does. You see, if He represents you
in His priesthood, you must be saved if He represents you. Oh,
I want Him to represent me, don't you? I don't want to try to come
into God's presence on my own. I'll be cast away, but I need
this saving priesthood. He's called in Hebrews 7, 19,
a better hope. He's a whole lot better hope
than salvation, depending upon me and my works and the law.
He's a better hope. And we read in Hebrews 7, 22,
where he's the surety of a better covenant. And I love that verse
of scripture in Genesis 43 verse nine, where Judah, the one, the
Christ came through, said with regard to Benjamin, all you require
Look to me for it. Look to my hand for it. I will
be surety for him. I'll take full responsibility
for his salvation and to think of the Lord Jesus Christ taking
full responsibility for my salvation. Oh, that's better. Nothing's
as good as that. We read of better promises and
his sacrifice is a better sacrifice and faith in him is a better
and more enduring substance. And he is the better heavenly
country. I want to be in him. I want to
dwell in him. That's the place I want to be. That's my address,
the Lord Jesus Christ, simply to be found in him. His blood
speaks better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood said, condemn. Christ's blood says, justify,
save. We read of the better resurrection.
Now what I want to do to conclude this book that is said by the
writer to be just a few words. I like that, just a few words.
Is I want to look at the exhortations once again, very briefly, but
it's gonna take me two sermons to preach this message because
I can't get all these exhortations in one sermon unless everybody's
agreeable to stay here a couple hours. Anybody agreeable? No?
Okay, we'll take two sermons to do this. Hebrews chapter two,
verse one. Now in the first chapter, he
had been speaking of the excellency and the glory of Jesus Christ. Oh, Hebrews chapter one is one
of the high points of the scripture with regard to the person of
Jesus Christ. It would be a blessing if the
Holy Spirit blesses us that to us to read this tonight or tomorrow. Hebrews chapter one. Now look
what he says after this. says, therefore we ought to give
the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard
lest at any time we should let them slip, leak out, lose them. Now what an exhortation. give
them more earnest heed. Verse 2, 4, The word spoken by
angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward. Now, there were some
angels that failed. Some think a third of them from
that A passage in Revelation 12 where the third of the stars
fell from heaven, something that is representative of the fall
of angels. But there was no mercy for fallen
angels. You know, I think it's interesting that people argue over the fact that not
all men are saved. If God could save all men, why
didn't he do it? But he didn't save all angels.
I've never heard anybody argue about that. They're reserved
for punishment. Verse three, how shall we escape
if we neglect? What a word. How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? The salvation from sin. Thou
shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sin, their sins. What a great salvation. to neglect
it, to be negligent of it, to be apathetic or indifferent toward
it, to become hard toward this message, we won't escape. Now that is the first exhortation.
How shall we escape? Look in chapter three, verse
one, wherefore, and look what he calls us. holy brethren." That's every believer. Don't
you love that? I'm called a holy brethren. If Jesus Christ is my holiness,
I'm holy. Holy brethren, partakers of the
heavenly calling, consider, here's the exhortation, consider, ponder
the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. He's the apostle. That means
he's the sent one. God sent him. He said, I came
down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him
that sent me. You know, in John chapter 17,
the Lord describes his people as those who believe that thou
hast sent me. I believe the Father sent him.
Do you? He's the sent one. He's the high
priest of our profession or our confession. I'm gonna get into
that a little bit in a moment about what confession means,
but he's the high priest of that confession. He's the Christ,
the prophet, the word of God. Consider. Everywhere. Don't you love that scripture?
He spake as one having authority and not like the scribes. There
wasn't any authority to anything they said. But when he spake,
he spake the word of God as God's prophet, God's priest. Oh, he's
a priest who brings his own precious blood into the very presence
of God and God accepts him and everybody that's represented
by that blood. Consider him. Consider him as king. King of
righteousness. First, king of righteousness.
After that, king of peace. You see, he's made the way for
God to be righteous. And from him being the king of
righteousness, after that, we have peace. Consider him the
king of righteousness and the king of peace. Holy, harmless, undivided, separate
from sinners, who needeth not daily as those high priests to
offer up a sacrifice first for his own sins, And then for the
sins of the people. Now listen to the language. This
is beautiful, this is glorious. What'd the high priest have to
do? He had to offer two sacrifices. First one for his own sins. He
wasn't fit to offer up a sacrifice for the sins of the people unless
he first offered up a sacrifice for his own sins. Then the sins
of the people. But Christ offered one sacrifice. took care of both. You see, my
sins became his sins, and Christ took care of both by that one
glorious sacrifice for sins. What a glorious high priest. What could be better than to
consider him? Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12, take ye, brethren, Lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. I hope every one of us hear that.
I hope beginning with this preacher. Take heed, brethren. Lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. But exhort one another daily
While it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. You know, that frightens me.
Sin's deceitful. And I know how easily I can be
deceived by it. I don't trust myself. Lord, keep
me, preserve me, lest I be hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin. Look at chapter four, verse one. Now these are these exhortations
that he told us to meditate on, think on, don't
leave these things. This is such a powerful, when
he says, let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us
of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short
of it. You know what I fear? I fear not resting in Christ.
I fear not resting. in Christ, coming up short, thinking
I'm doing it, and never really trusting the Lord Jesus Christ
truly as my all in salvation and resting in him. And he tells
the brethren, fear coming short. Let's look what he says on down
in this chapter. Verse nine, there remaineth therefore
a rest, a Sabbath of rest. to the people of God. You know,
the Sabbath began in Genesis 2. After God finished his works,
he rested. That's the first time we read
of the Sabbath day. And when the children of Israel
were called to gather up the manna before the giving of the
law, they were commanded to gather up six days a week and to rest. on the seventh. You see, the
Sabbath is an eternal rest. What do you do when you rest?
Nothing. Look what he goes on to say in
Hebrews chapter four, verse 10. For he that has entered into
his rest has also ceased from his own works. as God did from
His. You know why God ceased from
His works? Because they were finished. They were completed. There wasn't anything to do.
He looked at what He had done and behold it was very good. And we look at what Christ has
done and behold it's very good. And we wouldn't dare add anything
to it. We rest in what He did. Now look what He says in verse
11. This is almost Paradoxical at
any rate, labor to enter into that rest. Give every effort,
labor, give it your all to enter into doing nothing. The hardest
thing that you and I are called upon to do is nothing. Rest. Labor to enter into that
rest. Cease from your own works. And
while I say it's the hardest thing, it's the easiest thing, to simply
rest in what he did. I know you can't do it, and I
can't do it apart from the grace of God, but if you realize you
can't be saved by your works, I think of that scripture, to
him that worketh not, Have you ever been convinced that you
can't be saved by anything you do? If any part of salvation
is dependent upon you first doing something, you're toast. You
have no hope. Wouldn't you see that about yourself?
It's easy to trust His righteousness, because you don't have one. There's
no other options. It's not like you have a choice
to make. This is your only option, to enter into His rest. Stay in chapter four, verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace. Now this is speaking to every
believer, not presumptuously, but with boldness, with a holy
boldness given by the Spirit of God. Let us come boldly. under the throne, it's a throne,
a throne of absolute glorious deity, but thank God it's a throne
of grace. Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace. Now notice the word, therefore,
let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. What's
that therefore, therefore? Well, look in verse 14, seeing that
we have a great high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the son of God, let us hold fast our profession, For we have not
an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without
sin. I can remember for many years I would read that and say,
how can he be touched by my infirmities if he's never experienced them,
if he's never sinned? Because he never sinned. There's
no question about that. We believe in the absolute sinlessness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't even have the potential
to sin. Somebody says, well he could have. No he couldn't. He
wouldn't be God if he could. He didn't even have the potential
to sin. How is he touched by the feeling
of my infirmities? Because he's experienced every
one of them infinitely more acutely than I have when he was made
sin on the cross. You feel guilty, you feel isolated,
you feel alone, you feel shame, you feel disgrace, you feel like
you're dishonored. The Lord felt that much more
acutely than you ever have when he bore mine, your sins on Calvary's
tree. And he's touched, he's moved
to sympathy. When he sees me feeling so alone
and forsaken and wicked and just nobody, He's touched and he's
felt it much more acutely than you and I ever have. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace. Now this boldness is not the
boldness of presumption, but the boldness of faith. We read
in 1 John 4, 17, that we may have boldness on the day of judgment
because as he is. So are we in this world. That's where that boldness comes
from. Whoever he is, that's who I am. Now, can he come with boldness
into his father's presence? Well, of course he can. Me too.
Everybody in him. Chapter six, verse one. Therefore leaving the ABCs, the
principles, the oracles, the first elements of the doctrine
of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, maturity. That's
not saying that you'll reach a state of sinless perfection
in this life, but he is talking about maturity. And how do we
do that? By not having to lay the foundation
again. Now, what happens to this building
If the foundation is cracked and we got to replace the foundation,
the whole building's got to go down and the foundation started
over again. What would happen if that was
happening all the time? Every four or five years, we'd
have to knock the building down, redo the foundation because we'd
have to lay it again because no one was truly settled on it.
This is so important. He's not talking about leaving
these doctrines. He's saying we ought to be grounded
on them so the foundation doesn't have to be ripped up and started
over again. And I love what he calls these
six truths that should not have to be laid over and over again.
And the first one is the foundation of repentance from dead works. Every work before God regenerated
you was a work of death. It was sin, it was evil, there
was no application, the religious works. They're nothing more than
dead works performed by a man or woman dead in sins. And if somebody doesn't repent
of their dead works, they've never trusted Christ's work.
That's how important this is. Do you know anything about repentance
from dead work? Seeing that every work that you
had, every thought you had, everything you ever did religiously before
God birthed you into his kingdom was nothing more than a dead
work. That's where it begins. Repentance from dead works. Don't have to be laying that
foundation over and over again. The superstructure will never
go up. Faith toward God. Faith in Christ as God. We trust
the God man. Faith toward God. We rely on
him. We trust his character. That's why I'm the Most of them,
well, a lot of times I am worrying, but I should never be worrying
because I trust his character. Whatever he does is right. And
he's in control of everything. Everything's good. Everything's
fine. But most of all, I trust him as God, my savior. I trust
his salvation, faith toward God. And then he talks of the doctrine
of baptisms. What is the doctrine of baptisms?
Well, baptism is so important. It illustrates the gospel. It
illustrates union with Jesus Christ, our hope. That's what
baptism is all about. You know, somebody says, well,
I believe in baptism by immersion. Well, good, you ought to. I mean,
baptism by sprinkling is foolishness, and baptizing a baby is foolishness. I mean, there's only, but you
can be right on the mode of baptism and not know what it means. Baptism
means that when Jesus Christ lived, I was in him and I lived. I was united to him. That's my
hope of being saved. When Jesus Christ died, I was
in Him, I died. My sins were put away. When Jesus
Christ was raised from the dead, I was in Him, I was raised from
the dead. My hope is union with the Son
of God. That's what the doctrine of baptisms
is. Whether you're talking about
Water baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it all has to
do with union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he talks about
the doctrine of laying on of hands, and believe me, this is
not some preacher laying hands on you and pop, you have the
Holy Spirit and you fall backwards. That's foolishness, that's all
that is. This is talking about the high priest laying his hands
on the sacrifice. And the transference of sin,
the people of Israel, it was symbolic, it didn't really happen,
but it tells us what happened on the cross. The high priest,
it's the representative of Israel, laid his hands on the sacrifice.
The sins were transferred to that scapegoat. He was led by
a fit man into the wilderness. My sin transferred to him. His
righteousness transferred to me. And then there's the resurrection
of the dead. There's so much we can say about
that. But when Christ was raised from the dead, we don't trust
the dead Savior. We trust the living Savior. And
when he was raised from the dead, he had been delivered for our
offenses. That's why he died. He was raised
again for our justification. Oh, we love the resurrection
of Christ. We love the spiritual resurrection
of being born from above, being given life from the dead, and
how we look forward to that final erection where we'll be raised
incorruptible, perfectly conformed to the image of His Son. And
then eternal judgment. I love the word eternal. Not
just judgment, eternal judgment. Everything God did is eternal.
Everything God does is eternal. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And I was eternally justified
in what he did. How I love eternal judgment. Hebrew seven. Now he'd been talking
about Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of
Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning
from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him." I love the
way all of a sudden Melchizedek pops up for a few verses in Genesis
chapter 14. There he is. No explanation.
There he is. And you don't hear about him
until David says, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek
in Psalm 110. Now this Melchizedek, What he's
going to say is, consider how great this man was. Well, let's
look at how great he is. I have no doubt that Melchizedek
is the Lord Jesus Christ. I've heard people say, well,
how could he be the Lord Jesus Christ when he said he's made
a priest like unto? Well, when John saw the Lord
Jesus Christ, he said, I saw one like unto the Son of Man,
when the children saw, or when Nebuchadnezzar saw the Lord in
the furnace, he said, I saw one likened to the Son of God. Well,
he was the Son of God, wasn't he? And this is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's go on reading. To whom
also the Father gave a tenth. Abraham gave a tenth part of
all first being by interpretation, King of righteousness. After
that, also King of Salem, which is King of peace. That can only
describe Jesus Christ, King of righteousness. king of peace,
without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of the life, but made like unto
the Son of God." There's where people say, well, he couldn't
have been the Son of God because he made like unto the Son of God.
Well, I think that's ridiculous. He's the Son of God. abideth
a priest continually. Now consider how great this man
was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of all the
spoils." Consider his greatness, his infinite, glorious greatness
as the priest after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 9, touched
on this already, but the writer mentions this again. Hebrews
9 verse 12, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his
own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of the heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctify through the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, Purge your conscience from dead works. It
already said repent of dead works. And now it says purge your conscience
from dead works. Men, many of y'all have done
this. We've tried to appease our conscience
by works. Men feel trouble over their sins
and they start trying to do things that'll make up for their sin.
Purge your conscience from that. You can't do anything to make
up for your sin. You can't atone for your sin. You can't do anything
to make it better. Purge your conscience from that. Quit trying
to satisfy your conscience with your filthy works. Look to the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The only place of assurance is
the resurrection of Christ. If you're looking for assurance
for your works, you're looking in the wrong place. And, oh,
don't do it. The Lord could leave you there.
Don't do it. Purge your conscience from those
dead works and trust the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ only. Hebrews 10, 18. Just got a couple
more. Now, a remission of these is, there's no more offering
for sin. What's the exhortation there?
Don't try to bring offering for sin. Don't try to bring anything.
Where the remission of these is, there is no more offering
for Zion. Verse 14, for by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, when
he did that, don't try to bring an offering for sin. Look to
him only. Rejoice in him only. Don't look anywhere else. Verse 22, chapter 10, let us
draw near. Right now? Yep, right now. Let us draw near with a true
heart, that heart that He gives, that's the only true heart, the
new heart, the pure heart, the heart God gives. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from
this evil conscience that tries to satisfy itself by what it
does rather than look to Christ alone. Now let me tell you, If
your conscience is satisfied by anything other than the resurrection
of Christ, you've got an evil conscience. It doesn't work.
It's no good. It's seared. The only true good
conscience is that conscience that finds satisfaction only
in the resurrection of Christ. Draw near. Near, so near to God,
nearer I cannot be. In the person of his dear Son,
I'm as near to God as he. Dear, so dear to God, dearer
I cannot be. Purge your conscience. Quit trying
to bring things other than looking to Christ only. Just stop it.
It's no good. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. Look in chapter 10, verse 24. Got two more. And let us consider one another to provoke. Well, verse 23, I'm
getting out of order. Verse 23 first. Let us hold fast
the profession or the confession of our faith. And that word faith
is hope. I don't know why they translated faith, but it's the
word that generally translated hope. Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering. Now, the confession is, means
to speak the same thing. This is what all believers say.
They speak the same thing. Believers believe the same. They
believe the same gospel. They have the same experience.
They look to the same Savior. If I have faith and you have
faith, we have the same faith, don't we? Believers don't believe
different stuff. They all believe the same thing.
It's called the confession of our hope. Now here's the confession
of my hope. My hope is that when I stand
before God in judgment, God's gonna look me over and there
will be no sin. It's called justification. Because
of what Christ did for me, I will stand before God in judgment
as one who has never sinned and always done that which is right. That is my hope and I have a
hope that everything between now and then is working together
for my good and his glory. It's all good. Now, hold fast
to that. Hold on to that. Don't waver
back and forth there. That doesn't do anything but
dishonor the Lord. Hold fast that confession of
our hope. And then I love verse 24. Let
us consider. Here's another exhortation. Let
us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Consider one another to provoke. not to irritation by our self-righteous
and judgmental holier-than-thou attitude, nor to discouragement
with our lackadaisical way of thinking toward others, not provoke
each other to irritation or discouragement. And believe me, we can certainly
do that by our conduct, by our attitude. We can really discourage
others, provoke one another. to love and to good works. Now,
what does that mean? That means, first of all, don't
think, well, he's not doing that enough toward me. Think about
yourself. Don't think about anybody else. Well, he's not provoking
me to love and good works. Just quit thinking that way.
I am to treat you in such a merciful, long-suffering, non-judgmental,
helpful, friendly, kind, gracious, merciful way that it provokes
you to love me. Now, somebody could very easily
and probably very rightly think, well, you're not doing a very
good job at it. Maybe, but I want to. I want to and I hope that
is the ambition of each one of us to provoke each other to love
and to good works. Look at verse 25, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another. And so much more as you see the
day approaching. Suffer. this word, endure this
word of exhortation. And we're going to continue on
this, Lord willing, if we're alive and next Wednesday. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might, by your spirit, be given grace to suffer this
word of exhortation you've given us in your word. Lord, we pray
for your mercy upon us. We pray that you would give us
the grace to provoke, to love and to good works. And Lord,
we pray that you'd give us the grace to, to truly, truly see the church as our family
more than we see our blood relatives and family members as family.
We pray for those in our number that are sick and suffering. We pray for your mercy upon them.
And Lord, we ask that you would outpour your spirit upon us and
give us grace to love you more and love one another more. Bless
this word for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen.