Today's Bible study is found in Hebrews 10:19-25; 31-39. Up to this point, the writer has been discussing doctrine. Doctrine means a body or system of teachings on a particular subject. There have been teachings on Jesus Christ being superior to angels, warnings against unbelief, entire sanctification as a rest for the people of God, the New Covenant and more. Now the emphasis shifts to practical Christian living. If doctrine is not bringing about an impact in someone's life, it is of no use. A head knowledge of salvation and sanctification will not get you into heaven. In Hebrew, which the writer of this book clearly was as well as his intended audience, to hear something is to apply what you heard to your life to bring about some action. For example, if a parent tells a child to clean up his or her room and fails to do so, the parent may respond, "Didn't you hear me?" The parent is not checking the audio capabilities of the child. Instead, the parent wants to know why the child didn't act on the words and clean the room. In the same way, this section of the study will be very practical. I trust you will hear the lesson.
The first section is "Come Boldly vv. 19-25." The writer of Hebrews was writing to Christians who were being tempted to return to their old lifestyle. Satan would try to persuade people today to also turn back. Notice the arguments we find in the Scriptures in this section: Through Christ we have
as demonstrated in how we live our lives.
3. Let us give careful and diligent attention to our fellow believers. We are to provoke to love (not hate), stimulate, stir up one another to "love and to good works."
These three admonitions give practical application to the doctrines that have been taught in the first ten chapters of Hebrews.
The second section is "Call to Remembrance vv. 31-34." Verses 26-31 contain a stern warning regarding backing up on God. If one returns to his or her former ways, there "remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." What a dangerous place to find oneself. The writer tells us, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." The writer states to remember the persecution you may have gone through when you left the world and became a Christian. You were a "gazingstock" which means you were a theatrical spectacle. It may not be pleasant to be a public gazing stock, but it is better to lose public favor than Divine favor. What do you prize more highly? Persecution may involve"spoiling" of your goods. This means that your possessions were taken away from you. Yet, we are to gladly give our all for the cause of Christ rather to be counted as part of the world. The writer speaks of the people being joyful when their goods were spoiled. Would you be joyful if what you had was taken away? The point of this section is that we are to count it all joy when we have difficulties for the cause of Christ and always keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ.
The third section is "Cast Not Away vv. 35-39." God had brought the original readers through the trials of their early Christian life. Remembering those victories would help them to hold on to their faith. The Hebraic approach to moving forward is to look at the past to remember God's faithfulness. Think about rowing a boat. You face in the direction you are coming from and your back is facing the direction you are heading. That is how we are to move onward. Look back at God's faithfulness. He did not fail you then and He will not fail you now. We are to live by faith. The writer quotes this from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk (2:3,4). God has sufficient grace to take you through every trial. As long as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ we will not cast away our faith. This would be a good time to list things that God has done for you in the past. It will increase your faith and encourage you to keep pressing into Him.
The Golden Text is: "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." (Hebrews 4:14) Regardless of the persecution or trials we may be facing, we are to hold on and never give up on our faith. Faith is real. It is evidence (Hebrews 11:1). The word "profession" could be translated as "confession." I advise people in difficult trials to speak the Word of God. Meditate (means mumble to yourself) on the Word all day. Never stop and you will hold fast to your profession!
My summary points:
1. We may come boldly to God, not because of our righteousness, but because of Jesus Christ.
2. We are to remember all that God has done for us in the past and trust in Him to do the same as we walk into the unknown of life.
3. We are to hold fast to our confession of faith and cast not away our confidence in Him.
Next week: "The Life of Faith." (Hebrews 11:1-13).
Don't forget to read your Sunday School Beacon for inspiration.
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