Summer 2013

 Two-fold exhortation  Let us leave  And go on  If they will understand the meaning of Christ’s priesthood and his sacrifice, this will be enough to keep them from apostasy  They must decide: Is Aaron (and his descendants) or Christ high priest?  Who offers the real sacrifice for sins?

 Six basics that need no further emphasis  Repentance from “dead works”  Faith in God  Washings (baptisms)  Laying on of hands  Resurrection of the dead  Eternal judgment

 “Impossible” to bring some back to repentance  Those “once enlightened”  Who have “tasted the heavenly gift”  Have shared in the Holy Spirit  Have “tasted the goodness of the word of God and of the age to come”  And have then “fallen away”  Why?  They crucify again the Son of God  They don’t just disbelieve Him, they denounce and disgrace Him before the world

 Apostasy illustrated by two kinds of soil  Well-watered and cultivated  Receives a blessing from God  Worthless soil of “thorns and thistles”  Near to being cursed  To be burned  Apostasy  Not the same as “falling short”, but not falling away  It is to “deliberately” keep on sinning  “Wobbling” Christians need to face the peril of their situation

 Confident of “better things”  Things that accompany salvation  “beloved”  Love and work go together  They had served the saints  Such love toward others demonstrates an active faith...the opposite of the apostate  They have love. They have faith (to some extent), they lack assurance and hope

 They were “dull of hearing” (5:11), now he exhorts them not to be “sluggish”  Imitators of those... who inherit the promises

 Promise  Occurs 18 times in Hebrews  “He who promised is faithful” (10:23)  Abraham “patiently waited”  Genesis 22:17—promise that his offspring would be numberless  Genesis 12:2—great nation  Genesis 21:1-7—25 years later Isaac was born  Hebrews 11:13, 39-40

 Two unchangeable (immutable) things  God’s word  God’s irrevocable oath  Provides “strong encouragement”  For those who have fled to Christ for refuge  To “hold fast” to the hope set before us  A “sure and steadfast anchor”  A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain”  Where Jesus has gone

Summer 2013